


there's a light (and it never goes out)

by doc_boredom



Category: Game Grumps, TWRP | Tupper Ware Remix Party (Band)
Genre: 80s hype train, Alien Cultural Differences, Alternate Universe - 1980s, Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Cultural References, Developing Friendships, Jewish Identity, M/M, Memory Loss, Minor Violence, POV Alternating, ROmantic Interludes, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Space Battles, because I started writing this before SLB video came out so, not your typical twrp lore, twrpbb2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-06-29 04:32:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19822606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doc_boredom/pseuds/doc_boredom
Summary: The year is 1989.Dan Avidan has been having strange dreams since he turned 13 years old. Dreams in which the world is on fire, is dying, and it's somehow all his fault. And while he and his best friend Arin can't figure out where to even start, an otherworldly meteor shower and the dark eyed alien that it brings on him on his 18th birthday may just end up being the best place to start.Part of the TWRP Big Bang 2019 challenge.





	1. Chapter 1

It started with silence.

It always did.

It was as if the sky itself had sucked in a too harsh breath, taking everything with it. No stars, no songs, no means to make sense of anything anymore. 

All that was left was emptiness and dread.

And then, without warning, it tore itself asunder with endless light.

His father would be quick to label it as  _ Gilluy Shekinah _ . A literal manifestation of  _ Adonai _ Himself to all that believed in Him and the word of God. But this wasn’t heaven’s fire and glory. That much was obvious as the screaming began. This was something else, something alien and other.

It was end of the world as he knew it, and it was all his fault.

*

“Danny!”

Dan Avidan’s eyes flew open as he lay there on the floor, paralyzed almost, just like every other time that awful dream found him. Breathe, he reminded himself. Don’t panic. Remember where you are. There was no chaos here, no fire, no panic. Just the familiar darkness of his basement and his best friend. 

His same best friend who was making useless, panicked noises as he stood over him, apparently helpless to do anything else.

“Arin.” He managed between sharp gasps. “Help a guy out.”

“I heard you’re not supposed to touch people who are sleepwalking.” Arin informed him, words both worried and hushed. “They could attack and not even realize it!”

“Arin.” Dan said in a dry voice as he continue to lay there unmoving. “I’m kind of stuck on the floor, bud.” Not to mention the fact they were both holding a full ass conversation with one another, but he decided to keep that one to himself. Arin was worried, after all. He couldn’t help it that he was out of sorts.

“...Oh.” Arin gasped. “Oh shit, you’re right!”

It was impossible not to smile at that, even given the circumstances. “Attaboy.”

Immediately, Arin was on his knees, helping Dan untangle himself from the deadly sheet cocoon he had managed to wrap himself up into over the course of the night. They both knew this song and dance like the back of their hands, navigating the aftermath like tightly wound clockwork figurines. “Didn’t piss yourself this time!” Arin said conversationally as he moved to Dan’s other side, probably grinning to himself in the dark. “That’s an improvement.”

“Yeah, you and my mom are both so proud.” Dan muttered, pulling at his sweat soaked shirt as his brain did it’s best to play catch up to the rest of him. No light slanting through the curtains, but bird song from beyond the glass... No later than three or four then, if he had to take a guess, still plenty of time left to catch a snooze cruise if he let himself have it.

He half turned to Arin, his eyes having finally adjusted to the heavy dimness of the basement space that served as his room. He saw the mussiness of the younger boy’s hair, the sleepy slope of his brown eyes, a pang of guilt zipping through him as he registered it. “Was it bad?” Danny ventured with a wince, half wanting to hear the answer and half not. 

Arin snorted and gave a quick shake of his head, shrugging indifferently. “On a scale to the first birthday sleepover we had versus that time you caught a quick power nap during band practice last month? I’m gonna say it falls between the two. No bloody murder screaming or accidents, but the weird gibberish made a come back.”

Dan’s stomach flipped. “Great…”

He let himself fall back onto the carpeted floor with a heavy sigh, ignoring the way his spine barked back in protest. All he wanted was one night’s good rest. But Arin, it seemed, had other ideas, as usual. His entire body seemed perked and at the ready, like some kind of deranged pointing dog seeking out game. “I’m telling you Dan, we gotta start recording this stuff. Maybe we can get a reference point, figure out a cipher-”

Dan made a frustrated noise and waved him off. “And then what, Ar?  _ Ts, dai nim’as _ . Avi and Debra would put me in the psych ward.” It wasn’t worth it. Not for what was no more than a recurring bad dream.

An increasingly more terrifying recurring bad dream, but still just a bad dream irregardless.

Arin issued his own sigh and laid down next to him, cutting Dan an unimpressed glare. “So you’re telling me you’re just going to pass up on the opportunity to be the modern day Michel de Nostradame?” He needled mercilessly.

Now it was Dan’s turn to give Arin a look. “Michel de Nostra-  _ listen _ . One, you’re a nerd for knowing his full name. Two, yes, I am. I’m not even eighteen, Ar. Not for another two days, and I’m planning on enjoying it for all it’s worth, which is  _ not _ going to happen if they take me to the friggin’ Vatican! Speaking of!” He raised a finger at his friend, trying to warn him off the whole idea, knowing how obsessive he could get. “They probably wouldn’t even let us see one another once I got there. Did ya think about that one, huh?”

He rolled his eyes and blew a loud raspberry, not buying it. “Dan! You’re  _ Jewish! _ The last place they’re going to take you to is the head of the Catholic Church, you doof! They’d probably bring you to, like, Jerusalem, or maybe the White House...”

Before he could help himself a small giggle slipped out, which wasn’t missed given how Arin grinned at him smugly. “The White House with President George Bush. Good ol Poppy Bush. That’s rich. You just sold me on not solving this mystery with that one. Which-” Dan sat up, curls flying with the action. “Isn’t even a mystery, by the way. It’s all just bullshit.”

“Five years of bullshit, Dan?” Arin asked pointedly as he folded his hands over his stomach, still looking smug.

Danny ignored it, pushing his hair back from his face instead. “And counting, big cat.”

It was so weird to think that his parents were just sleeping upstairs, blissfully ignorant to this struggle he had. He could count the number of times they had had to wake him up from screaming fits on a single hand, and every time he would brush it off. Just a nightmare, he would tell them, sporadic enough for them to easily accept his quick and easy lies before slipping out and returning to their shared bed with nothing to worry about on their minds.

But how did you explain five years of blackness and unintelligible whispers? How did you put a name and reasoning to forces and powers you couldn’t even begin to comprehend? You didn’t. You just didn’t.

You just closed your eyes and tried to sleep again.

*

His birthday wasn’t just on a Friday this year. It was the first real day of Spring Break too.

Not that that meant any real crazy plans for him. You didn’t really do that when you were a guy like Dan. It was the easy joys of sleeping in, waking up to latkes and cinnamon raisin rugelach made by his mom, managing a  _ shehecheyanu _ prayer along with his dad...

And then he stepped outside for the day and saw  _ The Car. _

_ Car _ was definitely too kind of a word for the rusting olive green jalopy sitting in their weeded driveway, but you couldn’t deny the fact that it had four wheels to drive on and all the other necessary parts. “It’s two years late, I know.” Avi said as he came up behind Dan, who was simply standing there, completely starstruck. “But now you don’t have to walk everywhere late at night and give your mother more gray hairs, eh Dan?”

“You’re fucking with me.” He breathed the words out, hands reaching as if to touch the car despite it being so far away, not quite believing it.

“Keep it up with that language, Leigh Daniel, and you won’t be seeing the keys to that thing until you’re twenty one.” His mother warned him as she came up on his other side, pinching his cheek before jangling the keys at him with a sly smile. “Happy birthday,  _ bubala _ . You are such a good son.”

They had one other car, his parent’s car, only to be used by Dan in case of emergencies. So to have something all his own, especially on Avi and Debra’s strict budgets... He spun and threw his arms around them both, pulling them in extra close. “You really let me say my birthday  _ shehecheyanu _ before I got in my new car.” He accused Avi fondly as he let go. 

“What, and give away the surprise? Nothing is stopping you from saying it again, Dan. But come, come. Give him the keys Debra, I want to see him drive the damn thing. Put those classes we paid for to good use already, my God!” 

“So he can swear…” Danny started in an innocent voice only to have Avi push towards his car, a bastard’s smirk on his finely lined face.

“When you serve in a war, then you can swear as much as you want, Dan. How’s that?”

Immediately, Dan’s thoughts were drawn to the fire and screaming from his dreams, seemingly endless. He did his best to hide his grimace, forcing himself to smile at his parents instead. That wasn’t real, he told himself. This  _ was. _ “Yeah, uh, no thank you. I think I’m good.” He chuckled nervously before unlocking the door, swallowing down an eager giggle as it clicked.

He couldn’t not flop into the front seat, taking a minute to adjust for his painfully long legs before putting the key in the ignition and starting it up. It gave two impressive splutters before roaring to life, causing his mother to make a pained face as his father broke out in the biggest grin. “It’s perfect!” Dan shouted out the window excitedly. “I love it!” The insides were all leather, cracked in only a few places, and the radio… 

He jiggled one knob, then another, brow slanting when it refused to respond. “C’mon, c’mon.” This would be the make or break moment. He couldn’t have a car that didn’t have a working radio! That would be sacrilege. “Work with me, baby.” He wheedled sweetly, hoping that would do the trick. 

“ _ There’s a star...man! Waiting in the sky!”  _ David Bowie crooned back, somewhat staticky and stupidly loud.

It really was  _ perfect _ .

“Don’t do anything dumb Dan!” His mother shouted over the ruckus as he put the car in reverse. “You’re eighteen now, but you still live under our roof!”

“You heard your mother!” Avi called after him. “Be good!”

“You raised a complete nerd!” Danny bellowed as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. “You’ve got absolutely  _ nothing _ to worry about!” 

And he had nothing to worry about either, really. The next week and a half wouldn’t have any homework to weigh it down or dumb high school drama, and now he had a car to cruise through it with too. 

God, being eighteen  _ ruled _ .

*

“Anything?”

“Nope.”

He really hadn’t had any plans for today, and neither had Arin when he picked him up (but needless to say the younger boy went wide eyed and gaped when he saw the car before telling Dan that they now had to plan a summer road trip  _ stat _ ), but somehow they had found themselves with a meat lover’s pizza between them, sitting on the hood of Danny’s car in some empty ass parking lot. There was a growing pile of dud scratcher cards littering the free side of the box too, not a single one bearing any kind of luck. 

“I’m thinking after this we go to a sex shop.” Arin said as he pressed his ‘lucky’ penny to yet another card, beginning yet another relentless assault.

Danny chuckled and went for a slice of pizza instead, waggling it at his friend. “Um, _ I _ go to a sex shop, because  _ you’re _ still only fifteen, big cat.” He reminded him gently.

Arin’s brows shot up as he realized his mistake, fingers stilling completely over the new scratcher card. “Well,  _ I _ can wait in the car while  _ you _ go in!” Something starry eyed came over Arin then, causing him to let out a dreamy sigh. “Wow, that’s so cool to say. I can’t believe your parents got you a car!”

Dan gave another laugh, harder this time, nearly choking on his pizza crust. A car  _ was _ a big deal, but Arin was treating it like he had landed a damn Beemer instead of the hunk of junk they were oh so carelessly sitting upon. “Me neither. Probably won’t for a while.” Had he been that way at fifteen? It already felt so far away. “Gotta ask though. Why a sex shop?”

Arin didn’t so much as blush. In fact, he looked downright deadly serious as he replied: “I don’t know! You’re eighteen, Dan! That’s a thing that you can do now! That and like…” He stuck his tongue out. “ _ Bingo,  _ dude.” 

“And don’t forget voting!” Danny smirked as he stole Arin’s card, deciding to finish it up for him. “Wait, hold up…” He said slowly, noticing a pattern. “What exactly do you have to match again?”

“Shut up.” Arin blurted, bringing both hands down on the hood with a loud slam. “Don’t fuck with me! Did you match all the lil aliens up or what?”

“The UFOs, I think. Wait. There’s spaceships  _ and _ UFOs? This shit’s always so confusing. Here, look.”

Arin swiped the card back and studied it closely, eyes narrowing with scrutiny before they snapped open with unbridled delight. “It’s not the jackpot, but it’s fifty bucks Dan! You won!”

“I won?” Dan laughed in disbelief. “It’s your card, doofus.”

“Yeah, and it’s your  _ birthday _ , asshole.” Arin shot back. “You’re welcome.”

“Arin...” 

“Daniel.”

The car growled loudly before either of them could come up with another retort.

“...What the fuck?” Danny breathed out, teeth snapping together as it roared a second time, the engine catching just as it had in his driveway before figuring itself out. “Okay, what the fuck!” He shrilled, not quite understanding what was happening or how.

“Transformers car!” Arin yelped loudly as he rolled off the top, hitting the pavement flawlessly before coming up again. “Your parents got you a Transformers car, dude!”

“Why are you excited?!” Dan’s voice cracked in horror, much to his chagrin. This couldn’t be happening. Either there was a logical explanation or something just had to be wrong with it. Maybe he had left the keys in and hadn’t even realized...

Or they could be right in his front pocket, his immediate pat down could reveal. 

Yeah, that could happen too. 

A familiar explosive drum solo punched through the quiet, scaring the ever loving shit out of him and Arin both. “ _ And I can feel it coming in the air tonight... oh lord. _ ” Phil Collins’s voice crackled over the suddenly live radio at them, like some kind of deadly premonition of what was to come. “ _ And I’ve been waiting for this moment... all my _ life _ …! Oh lord. _ ”

“Oh Lord.” Danny whispered right before the sky turned itself upside down and inside out. Not with fire, and not with silence like he had so come to fear over the past five years…

But with _ stars _ .

It was a meteor shower the likes of which Danny had never seen before, and given the way Arin was watching the sky with his mouth gaping and eyes saucer wide, neither had he. Was  _ this _ his dream? Was it actually happening for real? Maybe he wasn’t meant to take it as literally as he had been over the past five years of his life. An unforeseen influx of meteors pelting down on them could be just as bad as otherworldly fire, if not worse, Dan supposed, this close to loosing a desperate laugh in response. 

“Danny.” The radio had shut off again so he couldn’t miss the way Arin’s voice shook as he called his name. The younger boy was the sole person knew how his dreams played out, who knew everything there was to know about all of this. “What’s happening?” He whisper-whimpered at him.

He couldn’t look away from the shower of stars raining down above his head. Didn’t dare. “I don’t know.” He finally said back.

What else was he supposed to say? It was like giving his dreams reason when there was none. And there wasn’t, Dan tried insisting to himself. Dreams were  _ just _ dreams, no more than his fucked up brain and deep sleep cycles running amuck.

But there was no ignoring the magnificent display taking place above them, or the swelling sense of anticipation rising up inside him.

_ Go _ , something told Danny.  _ Before it’s too late. _

“Get in the car.” The words all but rasped out of him like a sword, near guttural. Arin’s head snapped in his direction, a protest forming on his lips, but Dan was quicker, was already throwing himself towards the car recklessly, as if his very life depended on it. “We gotta go  _ now! _ ”

“What? Where are we going?!” Arin cried.

“That way.” Where all the stars were falling to the west of the horizon, arcing brilliantly across the infinite sky. It was like the promised pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, he told himself. 

It was just a matter of reaching it in time.

“Danny, I swear to God, if you get me killed tonight, my mom’s going to straight up murder you.” All of Arin’s earlier excitement had disappeared completely as they pealed out onto the main drag with a terrifying shriek, replaced with white knuckled tension and breathlessness. And what? What was he supposed to do about it at this point? His earlier promises of not doing anything stupid and having  _ absolutely _ nothing to worry about were becoming meaningless as his speedometer ticked up, up, up; further into a place that Dan didn’t even think was possible. 

But there was no slowing down though. Not with that pull growing inside of him with each passing mile, becoming more desperate with each star that burned itself out. It helped too that what few cars that had been on the road along with them had pulled over to watch the star show, making it seem as if he and Arin were the only ones left in the universe as they barreled through the darkness, racing after some great unknown.

“ _ When you close your eyes and go to sleep… _ ”

“Oh no.” Arin moaned as the radio started up again, unsolicited. “You gotta be  _ kidding  _ me.”

“ _ I can hear the things that you’re dreaming about. _ ”

“Danny! Turn it off!”

He ignored it, all of it, his eyes never once leaving the brightest streak still hurdling past stiller, dimmer stars. The Romantics fuzzed out before another song by Queen began to play in it’s place, Freddie Mercury’s voice ripping from the speakers and drilling itself into his brain like a siren’s song. 

“ _ Here we are, born to be kings! We’re the princes of the Universe.”  _ The shooting star flickered once, twice, his heart tripping in tandem with it. _ “Here we belong! Fighting to survive… in a world with the darkest powers. _ ” 

And just like that, it blinked out like a candle light.

Danny slammed his foot on the gas so hard it came as a surprise that it didn’t punch straight through the car floor to pavement below. There was still time! Even as Arin began to scream ear splittingly loud. Even as the car began to shake in protest beneath him. He was almost there. 

Almost!

The dead end sign he was coming up stupid fast on begged to differ that very fact.

Dan forgot everything he learned in Driver’s Ed in that very second and  _ swerved _ . If you could even call jerking the wheel so hard to the right his wrists nearly snapped with the action ‘swerving’, of course. They hit the rumble strip first with a jolt, then the gravel, and then they flew forward until gravity seemed to remember itself, bringing them down onto the grass  _ hard. _

For a single silent moment they both sat there in the middle of some god forsaken field, not moving, not so much as breathing as the rest of the world caught up to them. Then Arin opened his mouth to say something, or maybe just to start crying, but Dan was out and running, his gangly legs helping him fly towards the source.  _ Faster, _ that same voice urged him from before, forcing him to the edge of the smoking crater to where the star had touched down, faster than what should ever be allowed, just like before with his car.

A suit of armor the likes of which he had never seen before lay at it’s center, bristling and dangerous and dark, but that wasn’t even the strangest part.

That honor went to the golden haired boy cradled inside of it with both hands over his heart.


	2. Chapter 2

There were voices in the distance cutting through the dark void of his mind. Loud and aggravated ones, sounding both simultaneously too close to him and not close enough. 

“You just ran off without telling me anything!” The first voice squawked. “Not to mention that you almost totaled your car!”

“I did not ‘total’ my car.” The other voice huffed back, sounding out of breath. “We just... took a little detour, is all.”

Something clicked together in the dark. Teeth, something inside him provided. Sharp and hard. “...Are you-? Are you seriously making _ jokes _ right now…?” 

Silence followed, and then...

The other voice replied, shaking. “I’m actually fucking terrified.”

The younger boy shrieked. “YOU!? YOU’RE TERRIFIED? WHAT ABOUT  _ ME _ , DAN!? You just got in the  _ fucking _ car and started driving like a  _ fucking _ mad man while the entire sky lit itself up like it was the  _ fucking  _ Fourth of July, dude. And you didn’t even react! And now there’s a  _ fucking _ dead body at the bottom of this  _ fucking _ ditch and you’re just  _ fucking _ standing here like it’s no big fucking deal! And I- I- I-!” There was a sudden choking sound, like a sob half cut off, before the younger one’s voice spoke out again, pained and terrified. “ _ Fuck _ .”

“It’s okay, Arin.” The breathless boy tried to reassure him, his voice dropping even further. “It’s okay.” 

All he wanted to do was open his mouth tell them just that. That everything  _ was _ okay, that they had nothing to worry about. But like those strange voices, he felt too close to the surface of himself and yet not close enough… Maybe there was a kernel of truth there. Maybe he  _ was _ dead. Or maybe he was slowly fading from this world, this exact moment in time his last tether before he simply let  _ go _ .

And where would you go, the boy wondered to himself absently as he drifted further on. Past suns? Past moons? Past  _ stars _ ? 

Something in him stirred at the inevitable promise of the cosmos, an inexplicable waking of sorts. He wasn’t going to die. At least, not yet. 

There were still stars left to sing, after all, and work left to do.

His lashes fluttered open eagerly at the realization, only to gift him with a too distant sky covered in endless clouds. No stars in sight, not a single one to be found. The realization brought him up short, causing an ache in his chest that he didn’t quite have a name for. That he didn't think he would have for a very long time.

“Jesus Christ!” The one named Arin yelped. He was on the stockier side of the spectrum, and younger as well, he noted; with long brown hair and wide brown eyes that zeroed in on him instantly. “What the fuck is that thing!” He panicked as he strategically placed himself behind his taller friend. “What’s wrong with it!?”

Wrong with  _ him _ ? He went to touch his face, a hesitant action given how strange and out of body he still felt on top of his confusion, only to be distracted as something fell from his grip and tumbled down his front. He gave a soft noise of surprise before cupping his fingers around the object, taking extra care as he lifted it.  _ A flower...? _ He wondered as he studied it’s slightly crumpled shape, like a stain of fresh blood upon his open palm. What else could it be with such tightly frilled petals and softness? 

But why? Why a flower? Why even have it?

Later. It could wait. He looked up and found the other  _ other _ boy, Danny, watching him like a hawk. “Can you understand us?” Dan yelled down suddenly, so abrupt Sung was certain he hadn’t meant to say it out loud. That didn’t stop him from inclining his head in understanding though, barely catching the way the older boy’s spliced eyebrow ticked up imperceptibly in response. “So why are you here then?” He followed with, mouth turning down. 

Great question. “I don’t know.” He admitted in a low voice of his own, grateful that they could communicate someway, somehow. “I just… woke up. I know just as much as you do.”  Less, if he was being honest with himself, but they didn’t need to know that. 

He tried to recall what had brought him here of all places, but his mind was coming up blank. Further then, he told himself, ignoring his rising panic. To his people, his origins, his  _ home _ . Anything to give him some kind of idea of what was going on.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

There was  _ nothing _ to be found.

No, there had to be  _ something _ . He could speak, he could think, he could figure this out. He dug deeper into the strange well of emptiness that was now inside him, trying to think of the most basic thing to ask of it. Who am I? He demanded. What am I? What is my name?

- _ Sung you are Sung, you are Sung, you are Sung you are _ \- something shining and wonderful answered back.

“Sung.” He mouthed the echo to himself silently, accepting it as undeniable fact.

“A  _ likely _ story. You’re an invader from space. A space invader!” Arin accused him with a horrid sneer, as if he hadn’t witnessed the way Sung had just tunneled into himself. “And you’re here to kill us all!”

“Arin!” Dan admonished loudly, almost looking embarrassed on his friend’s behalf. “Don’t...”

But Arin wasn’t backing down. In fact, he seemed to be ramping up, raring and ready to go. “Then explain the full suit of armor, Dan! And those weird ass eyes? That thing just blew through our airspace, past all of our satellites and security measures, and then bam! Ground zeroes itself right here!” He hissed, throwing his hands up aggressively. “I’m surprised the Feds aren’t already here trying to clean this whole mess up. Roswell? Area 51? That’s their jobs, y’know!”

Armor? Feds? Area 51? What was this Arin kid on about? Sung pushed himself up from whatever he was laying in and quickly made sense of the first part. 

Not a protective shell at all surrounding him, but just as the other boy said: a hollowed out suit of armor, oddly large in comparison to him and very, very sharp. “Okay, okay, I’ll uh, give you that one.” He said with an awkward laugh, realizing the longer he looked at it, the more terrifying it got, and more confusing too. How had he gotten into this thing? Just what was it?

Questions, questions, questions.

“I don’t want you to give me anything.” Arin blurted awkwardly before shifting a step back, his glare falling away to something softer and more desperate. “...I just want to go home.” He begged his friend.

But Danny still hadn’t moved from that same spot Sung had first seen him at, hadn’t so much as closed his eyes since he first opened his mouth. “We’re not going anywhere.” He finally told Arin, his voice much too quiet for such a large world, his words too blunt. 

He was determined, Sung realized. Purpose laying in his eyes and along his spine. He sat up further, remembering to be mindful of the flower as he did, meeting Dan’s stare head on. “I’ll ask you the same question then.” He began with, making sure to speak each word carefully so as to not further upset them. “Why are  _ you _ here?” In this moment, at the crater’s edge, in the middle of nowhere looking down on him. 

Silence bloomed readily between the distance separating them, the night cooling alongside it. “...I don’t know.” Danny finally answered him after what felt like an eternity, and Sung immediately knew it was a lie.

And why? What was there to hide? Was it because of Arin, or because Danny didn’t trust him? Maybe it was a strange combination of the two, or maybe it was something completely else. Whatever it was,  _ something _ was happening here, something he ought to know. Between the flower, the armor, and the stars above, it all had to be connected somehow.

He just couldn’t figure out how. 

Sung held his hands up, accepting the un-truth for now, realizing just then how tired he was. “Would you mind helping me out then? Since you’re here? This isn’t exactly the most comfortable place in the world. Weird, I know.” He slapped on his most winning smile as he blabbered on, hoping it would do the trick. But Arin was still glaring at him, and Danny…

Danny was just _ watching _ him.

In mere seconds Sung’s smile wavered-faltered- _ broke _ .

He didn’t even know what was happening until Arin visibly balked at it, uttering a disbelieving “is he crying?” at Dan before realizing what he had said that out loud. He went to touch his face once more, only to be taken aback by the wetness he found there waiting for him, seemingly from nowhere.

“Oh.” Sung managed simply before the rest came pouring out.

There was no stopping it once the first sob welled up. What else was he supposed to do on some strange planet where he had nothing to him but his name, a dying flower, and a broken armor set? He hadn’t even gotten a look at himself yet either, but given Arin’s reaction, it was clear he didn’t fit. 

And now he was crying in front of complete strangers too. Strangers that had looked at him with such confusion and contempt when he had already given them what little he had to give. “I just… I don’t know where to go. Wh-what to do.” Sung managed brokenly, voice wobbling. “Wherever I came from, I don’t… don’t know how to get back, if they even… even  _ want _ me there.” 

Maybe, just maybe, some awful part of him figured, they had loosed him into the endless black of space without so much as a glance back, letting him fall without consequence. He drew in a wet and gulping breath, the rest of his apology spilling out of him. “I can’t tell you anything else because I can’t remember and I-!”

“ _ Yafeh nefesh _ .” Danny sighed loudly and suddenly, not making a lick of sense as he stumbled down the incline towards Sung, startling him. “First Arin, now you too. I thought the saying was ‘it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to’ not ‘my best friend and weird friggin’ alien I found in a field can cry if they want to’ man...” 

He let out a confused noise and pushed further back into the armor, but Dan reached his hand out, gripping Sung’s wrist tightly as he pulled him out. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.  _ I’m _ the one that should be sorry.” Danny confessed, surprising him for the second time that night. “God, I’m just as confused as you are, and I’ve been having these dreams…” 

He seemed to realize he was getting ahead of himself, swallowing awkwardly as he let the sentence trail off before starting it up again somewhere else. “I still don’t know what’s happening, but something told me to come here.” He lifted his shoulders easily, offering Sung his own half there smile, as if he still didn’t quite know what to do with himself. “That’s gotta be some kind of sign, right?”

Something,  _ something _ had brought him here.

Sung spared another glance skyward as he blinked the last of his tears away, finding a break in the cloud cover made by moonlight, a single star lingering there. The flower, the armor, the stars, and now Danny too. The other boy had to be another puzzle piece to work with, he just  _ had _ to, more substantial than the rest. “I’ll say yes if you say yes.” Sung finally replied with a helpless laugh, wiping at his face as he did. “Besides, I don’t think I have much of a choice given what Arin was saying before-”

Dan cut him off with a ‘pshaw!’ noise, waving his hand through the air. “Arin’s just a conspiracy theorist. Don’t let him get in your head.” But wasn’t he right, in a way? Given the difference between him and them? “Give him time. You couldn’t find a real mean bone in his body if you tried to, he’s just…”

“Scared.” Sung filled in the blank immediately, knowing exactly what Dan meant.

Dan nodded, eyes shining with momentary gratitude and mutual agreement. “Yeah, scared.”

Sung lips pulled up hesitantly. Was it bad to feel relieved that he wasn’t alone in his questions and confusion, or was that just fair given everything so far? More questions. Endless really. “I’m not really sure… what happens next...” He decided to admit out loud, deciding to place his trust in Dan for now.

“Getting out of the hole might be a good first move.” Arin sniffed before Dan could even attempt a response, speaking over their heads. “And maybe your name? If you even have one.” He added, muttering the last part sourly under his breath.

His next smile was more genuine this time, spurred on by his certainty on the matter as he faced the both of them with his hands on his hips.

“You can call me Sung.”

*

Out of all the things he imagined happening tonight, Danny hadn’t been expecting an alien to end up in the backseat of his car.

Sung wasn’t like the kind of alien that you saw in movies either. He was short, and weirdly handsome, and had eyes like new moon’s against an inky sky. God. You wouldn’t even suspect he was anything more than human if you didn’t see those damn eyes…

“I can’t believe you’re bringing that thing to your house.” Arin groused as he buckled himself in to the passenger seat. “You’re gonna get swarmed.”

“I am  _ not _ going to get swarmed.” Dan said as he watched the other boy in the rearview mirror, noting how he fumbled with his seatbelt. “Other one, to the left.” He said in a voice loud enough for Sung to recognize it was meant for him.

“Oh!” The alien gasped excitedly as he followed Dan’s suggestion. “Yes! I see now. Thank you!”

“How are you going to explain  _ that  _ to your parents?” Arin whispered with a hard nudge to Dan’s ribcage, demanding his attention. “Or the fucking weapon of mass destruction in your trunk?”

“I’ll figure it out.” Dan hissed back with a pointed look, trying to cut the conversation short. 

“Figure what out?” Sung chirped curiously, leaning between them. 

“Nothing!” He and Arin chorused in unison, causing Sung’s brow to furrow slightly before he fell back into his seat, tugging the other seatbelt petulantly. 

That was another thing about all this. How  _ perceptive _ Sung seemed to be. He wasn’t Predator levels of astute, but he wasn’t off kilter like ET either, even with his apparent memory loss. He was painfully human, and growing on him- and Dan wasn’t quite sure what to do with those facts.

He decided to ignore his growing anxiety for now and went to fiddle with the radio instead, only for Arin to slap his hand away as he leveled Dan with a damning glare. “No. No more radio! I don’t want to hear whatever it has to tell us. No more of that prophecy bullshit! I’m  _ done _ , okay?”

“Oh come  _ on _ , Arin. I’m not going to drive all the way home in silence.” Danny snapped before he could help himself. 

Arin shrugged, aggressively indifferent. “And  _ I’m _ not gonna have my future determined by Rockwell, thank you very much!” 

He paused and pulled back slightly, trying to figure out just what the hell his friend was going on about. “Is that… a ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ reference, Arin?” He half blurted-half laughed, incredulous. “Oh my God, I told Sung you were a conspiracy theorist, but this  _ really _ takes the cake!”

“You told the alien WHAT about me?!” Arin objected in horror. Sung’s reflection didn’t so much flinch at the accusation, his focus on strapping the other buckle across his front instead. “Do. Not. Tell. It. Anything else! It could be a body snatcher, Dan! Did you ever think about that?”

This could not be real. Did Arin even see what was happening in the backseat? He rolled his eyes, prepared to blow his friend off, but Sung was leaning up front a second time, the dual belts catching him at his waist. “What’s a body snatcher?” He asked, his black eyes big and wide.

Dan pressed his lips together, deciding to run with it. “You, apparently.” 

“Really?” Sung gasped, sounding like he actually believed it. Dan let out another loud laugh and shook his head hurriedly, not wanting to lead him on.

“No, no. Body snatchers are devoid of all emotion. If I had to peg you for an evil alien invader, I’d have to go with the Thing.” He grinned. 

“DANNY!” Arin choked.

“See, already sowing seeds of mistrust, causing general chaos.” Dan hummed. “Classic Thing behavior.”

Sung’s lips began to turn down at the corners, his expression becoming concerned. “I don’t think I want to be the Thing.” He stated, sounding pained as he did. 

“I’m kidding, you’re not. You’re… something else.” He could only hope that that something was good and in their favor. As ridiculous as Arin’s accusations were, there was an inkling truth there, a possibility…

Danny looked into Sung’s dark eyes again and tightened his grip on the wheel wordlessly.

“Anyways,” he announced suddenly. “I’m turning on the radio, we’re finding the nearest Taco Bell, and then we’re going home for the night.” All the pizza in his stomach had burned up with the earlier adrenaline rush and he was straight up  _ starving _ now. “We’ll figure everything out tomorrow morning. It’ll be fine.”

Arin crossed his arms over his chest sullenly, purposely looking out the opposite window in a very obvious attempt not to make eye contact. “You say that now, but you’re gonna be eating your words sooner rather than later, Dan Avidan. And who are you gonna be calling when they have your ass in jail? Me! And what am I gonna say?”

“‘I told you so’?” Danny ventured, resisting the urge to roll his eyes back into his head.

Arin made a loud noise of agreement, looking smug as he did. “Exactly. And then I’ll hang up, and that’ll be that.” 

“Thanks big cat.” Dan sighed as he began to drive back up onto the highway, ignoring the way his car groaned in protest, apparently not yet accustomed to all the extra weight inside of it.

“Don’t mention it.” 

“Um, excuse me.” Sung tapped his shoulder gently. “Can I ask about Taco Bell?” 

Dan and Arin both turned to look at him in shock before looking at each other simultaneously, silently confirming what the alien had just said. “Okay, you gotta admit, how many times are we gonna get an experience like this?” Danny offered with an eager grin. 

Arin smiled just a little before pushing his shoulder, rolling his eyes. “Just shut up and drive.”

It was _weird_ getting back on the road after everything that had happened. They really  _ had _ ended up in the middle of nowhere, and finding their way back to a civilization took much longer than Danny would have liked. The whole time Sung stayed belted in the back too, his hands folded neatly in his lap as streetlight shadows danced over him, his eyes trained on the dark sky. 

“Are the stars always so… distant?” He asked, finally breaking the self imposed silence Arin had enacted upon them.

Dan put on his signal to slip into the other lane and half met his eyes in the rearview, making sure nothing skittered out onto the road in front of them. “Hm? Yeah. We get a lot of light pollution from New York.” He explained. That’s what they had told them in Astronomy, at least.

“New... York...?” Wow, he really didn’t know anything about Earth, did he? There was no faking the silent mouthing-slow flutter of lashes that Sung issued when Dan reaffirmed the fact, nor the way his head tilted to the side to catch the starless sky once more, expression becoming unbearably  _ sad _ . “That’s unfortunate.” He whispered to himself then, causing Dan to grimace in sympathy.

“You came in the middle of a big ass meteor shower. They’re probably gonna be talking about it on the news for weeks.” Arin informed Sung casually as he made himself more comfortable, kicking his feet up onto the dashboard. “We don’t get a lot of that around here, and  _ that’s _ why-!”

“Arin.” Danny warned. He couldn’t do this again.

Arin puffed out his cheeks but got the hint, thankfully. “...Yeah, okay, dropping it.”

Sung was looking more and more miserable by the minute so Danny decided to ignore Arin’s earlier qualms and pawed the radio knob blindly, letting it decide what kind of story it wanted to tell. “... _ Welcome to your life. _ ” It began softly.

“Oh fuck yeah.” Fuck the consequence and implication of the lyrics. Tears for Fears was  _ always _ a good choice. He looked at Arin first as he turned the volume up, pleased to find him half smiling to himself, his head bopping along to the beat, but then he turned his attention to Sung...

It was a complete 180. He was staring at the radio display with wide eyed wonder, his fists clenched eagerly in his lap. “How?” He breathed as the vocals wound around them, his voice both sweet and small.

Dan’s eyebrows rose of their own accord. “Oy vey, don’t ask me. Bunch of… radio waves. AM-FM. Transmitting of sound over distance or something like that. Arin, bud, help me out.”

Arin pulled a face and threw his hands up uselessly. “Dude, like  _ I _ know.” 

Asshole. “Wow, alright, just... don’t think about it too hard.” Dan tried to reassure him, hoping that would do the trick.

“But how are they making those  _ sounds _ ?” Sung marvelled, still on it. “What’s making  _ those _ ?”

“Oh, that?” Now  _ that _ he could work with. Danny tilted his head towards the speakers, trying to place each piece and part. “So there’s singers, obviously. I don’t know their names for the most part, but then they play these different things called instruments. I think musicians is the better word for it, now that I think of it. Anyways, there’s gotta be like, a synth for sure in there. And guitar, obviously. Do you hear bass, big cat?”

“Your ears not what they used to be, old man?” Arin teased before leaning forward, stroking his chin in thought. “Some kind of drum kit, for sure. Ever since Collins dropped that gated reverb shit they’re always trying new stuff out. What’s next?” He smirked faintly. “Fully electronic songs? Computer robot bands?”

“Fuck off with that.” Dan almost felt guilty for leaving Sung out of the conversation, but it was clear he was somewhere else beyond them, still following along with a song he had heard a hundred million times before, experiencing it in a way neither he nor Arin could even begin to comprehend. “...I got a bass back home if you really want to see what it’s like Sung.” It was a little older and probably in need of some new strings and a tune up, but it still did the job.

“Huh?” The alien lit up. “Really?”

“Oh yeah, _really_ really.” He could have sworn something straight up  _ sparked _ in those dark eyes of Sung’s, but they had reached the Taco Bell drive up and his grumbling stomach was taking precedence over everything else. Answers could wait, he told himself, for just a while longer. 

At least until he had some cheesy nachos in his life.

*

Burning lips and ringing ears were probably things that he ought to be concerned about, but Sung could care less about any of that as Dan put his car into park.

They were byproducts of the latter half of the drive, after all. Prompted by gratuitous amounts of Taco Bell and too loud music played over the radio. Sometimes, Dan and Arin would jump up in their seats as a certain song began, belting the lyrics out. Other times, they would fall back against the cracked leather, huffing and puffing until the next song came on, too lazy to switch the station apparently. 

For Sung though, there was no good or bad songs, only amazement at how unique and specific each one was. The subtleties, the build up, the crescendos, the sound. All so different and special in their own distinct way. The synth work was his favorite, when and where he could find it, tiptoeing through some songs subtly in the background while blaring through others in the forefront. 

It was like living inside a dream.

“So.” Dan started as he shut the car’s ignition off, cutting a song called  _ West End Girls _ short as he peeked up at his darkened house. “What’s the plan?”

“I mean personally? I gotta hit the bathroom,” Arin noted casually, stretching his arms out above his head. “So can we make this quick?” 

Sung kept quiet as he worked his dual seatbelts off, letting Dan and Arin steer the conversation where they best saw fit (which was in the territory of dual edged bickering, he realized quickly, borderlining a rant.) He was beginning to feel strange again, almost as if he was becoming detached...

_ Sung you are Sung you are Sung _ , the litany ran through his head once more, trying to center him. And he was, he knew that now, but he also couldn’t help but think about what  _ else _ there was.

The worst part had been when he had seen himself in Danny’s mirror, the endless dark of his reflection’s eyes catching Sung off guard every time. 

He had tried to tell himself it was the shape of his face, the cut of his hair, the vague otherworldliness of himself in comparison to his newfound friends, but deep down he knew it wasn’t any of those things.

It was his eyes.

Eyes that weren’t his.

Sung’s fingers sought out his flower, now tucked behind his ear, rubbing at the petals absently before he lit them upon Dan’s arm. “Should I stay in the car?” He asked, starting to feel anxious again.

Danny gave him an appraising look before he began to nod, wild curls bouncing about. “That’s probably the smartest thing to do, actually. We can go in, Arin can use the bathroom, I’ll figure out if my parents are asleep or not, and then we’ll pop back out. Good thinking, Sung.” He said as he shot Sung an approving grin, the sight so pleasant he couldn’t help but relax with it. “Glad someone’s using their brain tonight.” 

“Oh, so you admit to being a dumbass tonight Dan? Is that it?” Arin drawled easily, earning a dirty look from his friend. He ignored it though, glancing at Sung instead. “Listen, Mr. Alien Man-”

“Sung.” He corrected softly, only slightly bothered by it.

Arin was also unbothered, continuing on as if Sung hadn’t said a single word to him. “I’ve been Dan’s best friend for three years now, just about. And while it’s no mystery that I’m not your biggest fan-”

“Christ, Arin,  _ maspik yam zi _ …” Dan made a face.

“I also trust Dan with everything I got.”

Danny blinked twice before huffing a laugh under his breath, which Arin also ignored in favor of continuing on. “So despite everything in me saying that you should not get within a freakin’ inch of that house, I’m gonna help sneak you and that hunk of junk of yours into the basement so we can figure out how to get you home. Because! Unlike  _ you! _ I have a spring break to kick back and enjoy, and this isn’t exactly how I imagined spending it.”

He wished he could say he liked the sound of that, but there was still the question of where and what home was, paired with why he was here and how. But he could smile, for Arin’s sake, and bow his head in acknowledgement. He was trying, and that’s what mattered in the end, so Sung could try for him too. 

“Aww, you guys are bonding!” Dan giggled fondly, interrupting them. “Soon you’ll be wearing matching friendship bracelets and trading baseball cards!”

“Friendship bracelets?!” Arin spluttered at the same time Sung asked “Baseball cards?” causing Dan to giggle even more. It was infectious in a way he couldn’t explain, causing Sung to giggle as well despite not really getting it. 

“Crap, I’m getting ahead of myself. You hang tight and we’ll make this quick.” Danny shot Sung a quick smile as he pushed the car door open with his foot, so much more at ease than he had been an hour ago. “Let’s go, big cat, chop chop.” 

“Don’t rush me!” Arin bitched as he tumbled out. “Don’t fucking start.”

“You’re the one who said he had to go to the bathroom! Remember the last time I told you to hold it?” Dan said pointedly right as Arin slammed the door. 

“Oh, so the pot is going to call the kettle black now, huh?” The younger boy griped, somehow still audible through the glass. “You really want to go there, Dan? Because we can  _ go _ …!”

And that’s how they left him in the backseat, completely alone.

Had there been someone like that in his life before, he wondered absently. Someone to laugh and fight with? Someone to love unconditionally, no matter how many faults? Rubbing the petals of the flower absentmindedly, Sung swallowed around the awkward knot that rose up in his throat unbidden, hating how easy it would be to cry now if he let himself. What he would give not to think about these things for a little while. To get out of this damning headspace.

To go to sleep, he realized, to go to  _ bed _ .

Danny had said they would be right back, but that could mean anything, really. Earlier, at the Taco Bell drive up, they had told him to keep his head down so as to not freak anyone out. It hadn’t been a big deal either, at least not until they reached the second window where the girl running the cash register had been. Fifteen minutes. She had gushed about the meteor shower that was “sure to be the talk of the town!” for fifteen whole minutes while Sung’s neck screamed in silent agony and his leg cramped up as he tucked into himself in the back seat so as to not be found.

So maybe he could just close his eyes for a bit and it would be fine. Then he wouldn’t have to see those awful eyes of his in whatever reflection the car could create, or sit there helplessly waiting for Arin and Dan like some kind of invalid. Things would be better on the dreaming side of things, Sung figured, even if it was just for a little while. So he let his eyes slip closed and tried to find peace.

A war answered back instead.

*

“Dan!”

Of  _ course _ his mom was up. He cringed back from the doorway, sucking in a sharp breath as he made a pained face before leaning into the family room. “ _ Shalom, eema _ .” He offered her his best ‘I’m a good son!’ smile, hoping she wouldn’t notice that anything was out of the ordinary.

“What, I don’t get a hello?” Avi was up too, of course, because his life couldn’t be easy anymore. 

They were both perched on their beat up plaid couch in their PJs, the TV washing both their faces out. “My God, did you see it? Were you out there with Arin?” Avi yapped. “Your mother shook me awake, screaming bloody murder that it was the end of the world! I looked out the window and said: ‘Debra, this is God’s gift to our beautiful boy.’  _ Adonai _ blessed you tonight, Dan! What a miracle we saw!”

“Quiet!” His mother shushed, pinching Avi’s side until he howled with it. “The neighbors got me all worked up, saying it was Soviet’s…!”

“In 1989? Oy vey. They’re  _ this _ close to tearing that damn wall of theirs down. I keep telling you it’s going to happen any day now, Debbie! No more big red scare!” Dan fell back a step, trying to find his way out of the conversation without them noticing it. 

It wasn’t that easy, of course.

“Hey, hey.” Avi pounced at the last second, causing Dan to freeze on the spot at the door frame. “Is Arin here? Did you bring that little  _ manyak _ ?”

Debra clucked her tongue derisively. “They’re tied at the hip, Avi, of course he did. Is he staying the night? Does he need to call his mother?” There was no doubting that he had some of the best parents around, but God, he really couldn’t do loving and considerate and attentive right now. Not with Sung waiting in the car for him, at least. Not right now...

“He’s just using the bathroom. Pretty cool what happened earlier, right?” He gestured at the TV, hoping it would distract them once more. Apparently it hadn’t just been just New Jersey. It had been all over the US and Canada too, and reports were still coming up. “We were in the Little Caesar’s parking lot…”

Avi waggled his fingers at him. ‘Over in the Washington Township? Ah, you should know that car’s a gas guzzler, Dan. You don’t want to get too far out without knowing where to fuel up. Maybe you and I can drive around tomorrow and mark some places on a map for you, yeah? I’ll call off and we can make a real day of it!”

His dad looked so excited, practically beaming. “Uh… tomorrow? Tomorrow… won’t work.” Dan grimaced with the fact. “Arin and I are uh, um- getting a new game! For my birthday!” He flubbed nervously. “Gonna see how fast we can beat it, so uh, big no on that one, dad.”

At least he didn’t look too heartbroken over it. He simple crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “We get him a car and he sits inside all day. I don’t know if I should be happy you aren’t out partying or sad.” He told Debbie out of the corner of his mouth, eyeing Dan dramatically.

“I vote happy.” He saw Arin in the corner of his eye, making obscene gestures at him from down the length of the hallway, trying to grab him. He hurried over to them first, laying kisses on both of their foreheads before running the other way. “Go to bed! You’re going to regret being up this late!” He warned them. 

“Ach, now who sounds like an old man?” Debra teased mercilessly, causing Avi to laugh. “Our lives are boring, let us enjoy what little we can.”

Dan couldn’t help the fond smile that graced his features as he finally escaped the room, throwing a loving “good night!” over his shoulder before joining Arin again. “Did you hear that?” He asked, slipping his hands into his hoodie’s front.

“Yeah, I can’t believe the dude’s a KGB sleeper agent.” Arin snerked, causing Dan’s mouth to fall open in horror. “Dude.” Arin said, pushing him hard enough that he almost tripped into the wall. “I’m kidding. I know he’s an alien.”

“Shh!” Dan flapped his hands at him frantically. “My parents are going to think we were smoking if they hear you talking like that, and then they’re going to want to check my car, and then they’re going to see Sung, and then-”

“I told you! I said ‘what are you going to tell your parents’ and you said you’d figure it out.” Arin ragged, pitching his voice to sound like a real moron. “Game over! You’re fucked!” 

Without meaning to Dan’s face dropped. He was tired, so, so tired after everything that had happened tonight and while he knew Arin was scared and stressed in his own way, he just couldn’t do it anymore. “Arin-” He started, voice tight, unable to help the fact.

Arin picked up on it immediately, his expression becoming apologetic. “I’m sorry, I’m still just reeling.” He admitted softly. “...What’d they call it again?” 

Dan couldn’t stay mad at him. It never worked out like that. Especially when he was looking at him with such kind brown eyes. “A geomagnetic storm, hit all of North America.” Danny explained. Had it been because of Sung, or had Sung been brought here because of it? There were so many questions, and none of them would be answered until they figured out what was going on with his dreams and Sung’s memories.

“Yeesh. Well. Hopefully nothing else happens and we can get star man back where he belongs.” Arin sighed as his eyes shuttered, causing Dan to come up short, which  _ then _ prompted the younger boy to run into him. “Hey! Warning!”

“...Say what you just said…”

“‘Warning’?”

“Fuck off, the other part.” Dan whispered hoarsely, mind beginning to run ahead of itself. There was no way, no way in hell...

Arin issued a slow blink, brow furrowing as he began to speak the words back at him verbatim. “...Hopefully nothing else happens and we can get the star man back-”

_ -There’s a star man waiting in the sky- _

_ -Feel it coming in the air tonight- _

_ -The things that you’re dreaming about- _

_ -In a world with the  _ darkest  _ powers- _

His car. His stupid, ugly car had been trying to tell him about Sung the entire time. He couldn’t fucking believe it. Again, his face must have given him away because Arin was getting up in his face (at least, as much as he could with how short he was in comparison), pulling at his sleeve. “What are you not telling me? You can’t keep pulling this shit, Dan.” Arin growled. “Talk to me.”

“Sung he’s… my car…” Where the fuck did he even start? He took Arin by the shoulders, shaking him violently. “The lyrics! Whenever my radio came on the lyrics were so specific. Before I even picked you up it was David Bowie’s ‘Star Man’!” 

“...Holy shit…” Arin whispered back when Dan finally got enough sense to stop, looking absolutely stupefied. “So that means… Wait, what does that mean?!”

It could mean a hundred thousand different things, but it was anything but coincidence at this point. “We’ll bring him inside, you’ll call your mom, and then we start working on it.” This was it, the make or break point. Arin couldn’t keep being weird and hostile towards Sung if they were going to get down to the bottom of this. “You said you wanted to figure out my dreams, well here’s your big chance.” Danny nearly pleaded, made desperate by the hard, unforgiving light in Arin’s eyes, the way his shoulders angled in. “I can’t do this alone.” 

God, he didn’t  _ want _ to.

Arin stared at him, and stared some more, and then after a little more staring he sighed a heavy sigh, finally seeming to relent. “I’m too far in at this point to say no, aren’t I?” He said helplessly, shaking his head. 

Dan straightened up and gave Arin the most brilliant smile he could offer as he wrapped his arms around him tight. “You’re about five years too late, give or take. Now, let’s go smuggle in an alien and get this show on the road!” He pulled the door open after letting Arin go, telling himself he was ready for just about anything.

Unless it was Sung himself standing on his front doorstep, his dark eyes endless.

“We need to talk.” He started with, words coming out in one big rush.

“About?” Dan ventured nervously, not knowing what to expect.

His eyes tightened just so, growing darker somehow. 

“The Starlight Brigade.”


	3. Chapter 3

Danny had told him to wait.

Wait until they had not only managed to get him inside the house, but the hulking suit of armor in as well. Until Arin had called his mother to tell her he was staying the night at the Avidan’s, and until Dan’s parents turned in for the night. And even then, to wait until they had all had the chance to change into a thing Dan called ‘comfier clothes’ so they could “sit their asses down” and “figure it out.” 

It had been surreal stripping himself out of the suit he had arrived in after putting his flower on the bathroom sink, the slick form fitting material of it nearly the same pitch black as his eyes as it fell off of him to lay uselessly at his feet. So this is what Arin saw at the bottom of the crater, he realized as he stared at himself in the mirror. Someone almost human if not for his eyes and ears and spotless abdomen. So close, and yet, not enough. Not where it counted, really.

Very much an alien.

“What are you?” Sung asked his reflection, hoping it would ring back just as his name had in the crater. It simply stared back though with those dark and unfamiliar eyes, completely helpless, not knowing any better than him.

Resisting the urge to scream, Sung went about throwing the pajamas Dan had lent him on instead, relishing at how soft they felt. Focus on the good things, he tried to reassure himself, trying his best not to sink down into that panicked place again. Like music and pajamas and Taco Bell... 

“You better not be performing some weird ritual in there, alien boy.” Arin’s voice said from the other side of the door, prompting him to stick his head out. He was right there, for some reason, tripping over himself as he stumbled back. “H-hey! Don’t do that!” Arin snapped loudly, sounding embarrassed almost. “You scared me!” 

“But you knew I was in here…” Sung told him slowly, not quite getting it.

“Arin, stop being a little bitch.” They both looked over to find Danny peeking around the corner at them, looking entertained almost. He spared a glance at Sung’s feet then, eyes widening at the sight of the PJ pants pooling around them. “Oh fuck, I thought Arin was short.” He snorted in amusement. “Bet you’re no more than five foot six or so!”

“I haven’t hit my second growth spurt yet! This fucker has, I bet!” Arin spat. “I’ll be just as tall as you Dan in a few years, and then you’ll be sorry.”

Dan rolled his eyes, his smile growing. “Yeah-huh Mister Five-Foot-Eight. I believe you, alright.”

Sung took that moment to slip past them to study the part of the basement that was Dan’s room. There were all sorts of framed pictures plastering the paneled wall, a mix of psychedelic art and what Sung could only assume were musicians and bands (not to mention one scantily clad woman taped up next to human’s messy bed, a sight that caused Sung to blush and glance away in embarrassment.) There was an odd wooden shelving unit on one of the walls too, housing smaller rectangles inside of it as well as a clunky looking electronic box. 

And clothes! What was the point of having so much clothes? He plucked a jacket up off the floor, fascinated by the too bright blue-pink-purple of it, the colors simultaneously hideous and absolutely perfect to him. 

“Sung?” Danny called, announcing his now-there presence as he came into the room.

“Mmm?” He turned on his heel, already having slipped it on without really thinking anything of it. “Yeah, ‘m here.”

Dan stared at him for a moment, brow pinching as if he had to make sense of what he was seeing. “...Holy shit, dude.” Dan spluttered out a laugh moments later. “That’s my fucking mom’s!”

“Oh?” ‘And?’ He almost wanted to tack on as Danny continued to laugh, but decided against it. Instead, he silently claimed it as his own in that very moment, deciding that the Avidan household had enough clothes to their name, and that no one would even miss it.

Arin joined them with a noise of judgement, shaking his head. “Jesus, he’s getting his alien pheromones all over it!”

“Do you hear yourself? ‘Alien pheromones.’” Danny mocked loudly, knocking his knuckles against Arin’s arm with a scoff. “I’m going to kill you if you don’t shut the fuck up.” 

“Implying a bunch of aliens aren’t going to show up to do that first.” Arin shot right back. “All because of mister ‘star man’ here with his god damn ‘Lite-Brite Brigade’. Speaking of!” The younger human boy spun on him, pointing an accusatory finger in his face. “Start talking, or else!”

Sung tilted his head slowly, unaffected by the younger boy’s ultimatum. “Threats usually go over better when you have the means to follow through on them, tough stuff.” Dan sighed as he began to clear his couch off, apparently making space for them there. “But Sung, if you would…?”

He hugged the windbreaker around himself tighter, trying to draw the memory back up. Not that it took too much, not with it so fresh in his mind, the image seared across his retinas. It was just a matter of explaining it. “When you went inside I decided to just… close my eyes, sleep for a bit.” No harm, no foul, right? Neither of them looked that surprised by his words so Sung took that as indication to continue on. “It was instant. I fell asleep like that. And then, when I did, I-”

Suddenly he didn’t know where to go with it. Words couldn’t even begin to describe the visions that had accosted him in that dreaming scape. “Everything was so... bright. Painfully bright. You’d think that something that felt that evil would be dark, but it wasn’t. It was light. And there was this endless screaming. Like the planet itself was a… a living thing! Like it was begging for mercy...” 

Both Danny and Arin were staring at him in growing, wide eyed horror, absolutely speechless. He should stop. They didn’t need to hear this. But there was so much more that his dreams had shown him, that needed to be said. “No one was ready, you could tell that much. No one was even expecting it. It just happened out of nowhere, and that’s when I heard it…” Sung drew in a shaking breath, unable to ignore the feeling of cold sweat slipping down his back.

“Heard what?” Dan whispered, voice so tight it came as a surprise it didn’t shatter and break.

“They put up a call for the Starlight Brigade.”

And that was it. That’s where he had woken up. He held his hands up, already seeing the questions that both Dan and Arin had before they even began. “And no, I don’t… I don’t know what that is, or who they are, but as weird as this is going to sound…” Sung rubbed his cheek against the collar of the windbreaker as he glanced towards the armor piled in the corner, his voice becoming too soft almost. “When I heard that name, I felt this sense of belonging. Like… it was something I was a part of.” 

Something to be proud of. 

Something he could call his own.

“So what?” Arin laughed nervously, near cackling with the fact. “Do they… they throw a big ol’ Bat Signal up? Lift the Sword of Omens to the sky and scream ‘Thundercats ho!’ to summon the whole gang to save our souls? Sung!” That was the first time he had used his name, Sung realized distantly, only half registering the fact- too startled by the outburst. “We don’t have anything like that! We’re fucking fucked.”

“Arin.” Danny managed, sounding as if he had been hollowed out and was now trailing a million miles behind them.

“You’ve been having these dreams for five years, Dan! Five!” Arin laughed again, high and wheeling, like he had lost a saner part of himself. “And each year they get worse and worse and worse and now he’s telling us that he’s seeing the same thing? That we have to depend on this possibly non-existent Starlight Brigade to save us? Bullshit.” He spit suddenly and savagely. “Fucking bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit.” Sung insisted, stepping into his space. “I told you, I felt-”

“Fuck your feelings!” Arin sprang up into his face, that same finger that he had leveled at him before now jabbing him in the chest. “Trusting your gut? Basing your actions off of feelings? We can’t afford that! The fucking apocalypse is apparently this close to raining down on our fucking heads and you have nothing to bring to the table but your wishy-washy bullshit!”

Anger boiled up in Sung, hot and furious, filling every inch of him before he could help himself. “Oh, so you have the answer then? You have a way to save everyone?” Sung’s lip curled back, the reaction impossible to stop. “Listen here, Arin. You act like you’re the only one that’s scared, that doesn’t know what’s going on, but none of us do! None of us know a damn thing! Most of all me! Because when I woke up I almost couldn’t even remember my fucking name!” His arms came out and shoved at Arin then, because he was pissed to high hell and couldn’t do it anymore, and because it felt good to do it too. 

Arin didn’t get to be the only one who was upset. He didn’t get to be mean and awful and rude just because things had changed for the unexpected. No one did. And sure, maybe he was being hypocritical thinking that only to turn it back on the human, but Sung was done at this point. 

So. Fucking. Done.

“Guys!” Dan’s voice was next to nothing, a near silent plea that couldn’t reach them with tensions so high. “Don’t do this. Don’t fight-!”

But it was too late for that. Arin was already rearing back, his fist cocked at the perfect angle to catch his jaw, thumb mistakenly tucked inside his locked fingers instead of out. Sung saw it coming from a mile away and went to deflect, a muscle memory he didn’t even know he had registering the fact. Grab the wrist, twist, then flip the assailant over your back...

- _A flash of fangs, followed by a proud laugh. They were in the training room, him and the strange creature now laying on the floor, sweat pouring down his back as he tried to catch his breath. “Good job, little Lumen.” He told Sung with a groan as he sat himself up, rubbing the back of his head. “Won’t need that sentinel of yours if you keep this up.”_ -

Sung nearly faltered with the maybe-memory of his, but his body’s momentum was too far gone to take back now. He braced himself for impact, but never got a chance to follow through for it…

Because the armor got there first.

*

It was like something out of a movie.

Technically, it made all kinds of sense that the situation had escalated to the point of physical violence. Danny really couldn’t blame either of them. Even when Sung hadn’t seemed capable of such a thing, or even when Arin had promised him he’d drop the suspicious asshole act.

There was always Murphy's Law to consider and take into effect. 

He wasn’t even sure if he could have done anything to stop it. It had been too fast, too visceral; Arin’s entire body arcing with the action as Sung readied himself. Not to take the hit, Danny had realized as it happened, but to turn it back on him.

Do something, that same voice that had urged Danny on when the meteor shower had begun came to him once more, forcing one foot after the other as he reached towards them, a desperate cry moments from shattering off his lips. It didn’t matter that his parents would hear it, that they would come running to him the instant it they did, coming to see what was going on. Nor did it matter that they would then see Sung, see the armor, the everything that he didn’t have an answer for and more. Not if he could stop this from happening someway, somehow...

But then the impossible happened. 

The robot woke up. 

It whirled into action like some kind of silent assassin, every sharp edge of it shimmering like an oil slick. It took up the remaining space between Arin and Sung and claimed it as it’s own, first grabbing the alien to shove inside it’s still open front before turning on Arin, it’s eyes ghastly red, it’s hands reaching out...

“No!” Dan cried through clenched teeth as he yanked his friend back, moments from being choked out, clapping a hand over Arin’s mouth. “Sung, fuck, make it stop!”

“I don’t know how to!” Of course he didn’t. Of course. Reason and logic didn’t exist anymore. There was no car keys accidentally left in the ignition or righteous act of God to rely on or blame. 

This was their reality now.

The armor slouched forward awkwardly before straightening back up, each action deathly silent as it tried to chase after them. “Hey! Hey stop!” Sung hissed as he banged his fists on the insides, bring Danny back to the present as he tried to find his way out. “Stop it right now!”

“NEGATIVE.” It droned loudly in response, causing Arin to screech wildly against his palm. “UNTIL THE DETECTED THREAT IS ELIMINATED, DEFENSE MECHANISMS WILL CONTINUE TO RUN.”

“No! It’s fine! It’s fine! See? He’s totally detained!” Danny pleaded with the thing as it advanced on him, jumping back a number of steps with his hand still over Arin’s mouth. “You don’t, fuck, you don’t have to kill my best friend! Jesus Christ!”

“Danny’s right! You can calm down now! It’s okay! I’m okay!” Sung insisted frantically, reaching over the arm it had wrapped around itself to keep him locked inside. “P-power down! Override! Turn off! Bad robot, bad?” He was getting desperate, dark eyes widening as it took yet another damning step towards him and Arin, locking them into the corner. “I… I command you to stop!” 

It froze, head cocking to the right just so before dropping it’s arms and letting Sung fall to the ground. “Laazazel! Christ! Jesus Christ fuck!” Danny seethed between panting breaths, trying his damn best not to freak the fuck out out. Someway, somehow, he still had Arin caught in a death grip, his fingers unable to let go. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” 

Alright. So much for that. He was definitely freaking out.

Sung was still bowed in on himself, arms shaking with the effort of keeping himself up off the floor. “I-It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s not going to do anything anymore.” He whispered weakly to Danny before letting his head fall. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I didn’t know…” 

Now Danny understood why the other had broken down earlier. Eventually everything caught up to you and all you wanted was for it to stop. “We’re… we’re okay now, it’s okay.” He breathed out in a rush, trying to reassure both of them as the tension in the room finally, and blessedly, began to drop.

He spared a glance down at the top of Arin’s sweat soaked head, his breath slowly finding it’s way back to him. He had done this, Dan realized, his earlier guilt turning in over itself. He had all but dragged the younger male right into the middle of this whole mess despite not having anything to do with it, put him up against aliens and robots, nightmares and darkness, uncertainty and strangeness without so much as warning or thank you. “I’m going to let you go now, big cat, and you’re not going to yell.” That’s all he needed at this point. That was it…

Arin gave him a tight nod in response, leaving no room for doubt, but still Dan waited a few extra seconds before letting him go. It didn’t matter that the boy in his arms might hate him for it, or that he’d bitch him out. He was just too far gone for that. “Here we go, okay?” He whispered gently against the crown of his head before releasing his hold. 

At first, nothing happened. Arin just stood there silently as if in shock. And who could blame him when the very thing that had tried to kill him was only a few feet away, it’s eyes lifeless, slumped over Sung like some kind of omen of death. “Arin…?” Dan started worriedly, reaching towards him.

Only to watch him fall face first into unconsciousness.

“ _Benzona!_ ” Danny swore as he went to turn Arin onto his back immediately, assuming that was the first and best place to start. Any other time Arin fainting would be grounds for weeks worth of teasing and bullshit, but given the current circumstances, he decided immediately against it. “Don’t do this to me, dude.” What were you even supposed to do when someone fainted? Christ. They didn’t teach this in health class… “Don’t make me slap you bitch.” Dan bargained, desperate.

“Don’t do that.” Sung told him as he began a slow crawl towards them. “Give him a minute.”

“A minute.” Dan repeated in a deadpan, doing his best not to laugh inappropriately as he panic spiked to an all time high.

“Yes. A minute. Just trust me, alright?” 

Their eyes met over Arin’s body and Sung grimaced with it, as if realizing how stupid that sounded after everything that had gone down. “I don’t know what happened, Danny. I really don’t.” He said, as if that gave Danny any grounds to trust him once more. “I just got so angry, and Arin was angry, and I remembered something right before it freaked out.”

Danny shoved his hair back from his face, trying to reign in his own temper (lest the killer robot go after him this time around.) Breathe. Remember where you are. No chaos here. No longer, at least. “Did you trigger it somehow?” He decided to wonder out loud, the phrasing ‘defense mechanism’ coming back around. “Was the memory... part of it...?”

Sung’s fingers were tracing Arin’s wrist as if to seek out his pulse, making Danny’s own skip worriedly in tandem. “Maybe?” He finally answered after a moment, his hair falling over his face. “There was this… this cat man. Lion man? Feline thing.” He began to gesture with his other hand vaguely, only half focused on the conversation. 

“Holy shit, this really is ThunderCats…” Danny cut in before he could help himself.

Sung glanced up, immediately making a cross face. “Using references I don’t understand isn’t going to get us anywhere, Dan.”

“Yeah, Dan…”

“Arin!” They both blurted in unison, causing the boy beneath them to glare around blearily as he came back to them. “You’re alive!” Sung announced, earning him a reprimanding look from Dan, who was so secretly relieved he didn’t even know where to start.

“Yeah, no thanks to you.” Arin mumbled blearily as he flipped Sung off, smart enough not to reach out and touch him this time around. “Christ, you didn’t tell us you came with a personal Terminator...”

“Again, with the references I don’t understand.” Sung snorted before rocking back onto his butt, legs automatically drawing up to his chest. “Besides, I don’t think it’s called that. I think it’s called a… a sentinel.” The word tripped out of him awkwardly almost, as if he were unaccustomed to saying it.

“And what, pray tell, makes you think that?” Arin asked as he sat himself up slowly once more as well, a look of genuine curiosity taking over, causing Danny’s brows to go up. There was no way that Arin’s near death experience had made him okay with alien, right? No way in hell…

But stranger things had happened already, after all. 

“Well, you went to punch me, and this... memory hit instead.” Sung explained haltingly, settling in to weave his second story for the night. “I was in a training room, I think, with uh… Lion-O.” Oh, how stupidly happy it made Danny to hear the alien say that. In light of all the craziness and angst, Sung still wearing his mom’s windbreaker and saying ‘Lion-O’ were going to be the things that kept him going until they figured everything out. “I had just flipped him onto the mat when he looked up at me and he told me ‘won’t need that sentinel of yours if you keep this up.’ And then, well, you know...” He trailed off, lashes fluttering over his dark eyes, cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

“Just some attempted murder is all, no big deal.” Danny filled in as he nudged Arin’s side, hoping to wring a smile out of either of them. 

Arin had a peculiar look about him though. Not one of silent terror, and not one of blatant distrust, but rather one of genuine thought. It was the same look he had pinned Danny with only a few nights before; eyes alight, fingers stroking his chin absently. “A sentinel is a guardian.” He began slowly as he spared a glance at the robot, surprisingly calm. “If that were the case, it would make sense given how it reacted-”

“You’re right.” Sung exclaimed, scootching closer to the both of them. “It called you a threat Arin, and it wouldn’t listen to you Dan!”

“But it did listen to you, Sung.” Danny countered before remembering something else, the exact moment strikingly definite. “But only when you commanded it.”

The three of them sat there in stunned silence, the joint realization falling over them. “So the penultimate question remains.” Arin raised his brows at Sung, echoing the same question that Dan’s heart didn’t dare let him say out loud quite yet. “...Just what are you, man?”

*

_what are you?_

_what are you? what are you? what are you?_

_-sung you are sung you are sung you are-_

_lumen? sung? other? more?_

More.

“A big deal, apparently.” Danny said around a yawn before Sung could slip away from the room and into that deepening well inside of him, bringing him back around. “There’s no denying it. You don’t give a grunt or a lackey a voice controlled murder robot. Which! Brings us to a very important discussion point. What the fuck are we going to do with that?”

Both he and Arin followed the casual point of Dan’s finger to the armored robot now standing across from them, still half slumped over itself. “I mean, we already went through the effort of bringing it in here...” Sung began.

“Yeah, only to have it try and kill me.” Arin decided to remind him oh-so-casually.

Sung shrugged, unfazed. “Because you were going to punch me, Arin. Which, by the way, almost ended up with you nearly messing up your hand.” He added in for good measure, wondering if the other human boy would understand.

“...What do mean ‘messing up my hand’?” He demanded after blinking rapidly, a different kind of furious from before, much more comical than realistic. “My form was perfect-!”

“Your thumb was inside instead of out.” Sung smirked.

“Alright, not the point of this conversation.” Danny jumped in before Arin went off the rails. “What I meant was… look at it.” 

Sung forced himself to do just that despite still not trusting it, certain the armor would move without warning, locking him inside it’s too dark walls forever this time around. “I don’t think it was ever meant to hold you, Sung. I think it just worked out like that.” Danny reached past both of them, tracing the armor’s outline with his index finger languidly. “I have a feeling whoever put you in there had to hollow it out somehow, and now it’s missing half it’s tech.” 

“And?” Arin interjected. “It’s probably operating on much more advanced stuff than we have here.” He then scoffed as he stretched his arms above his head, letting his head loll back. “We just can’t go down to the Radioshack and pick it up a new RAM, Dan.” 

“But what if we could?” Danny said, voice both insistent and soft. “Try and MacGyver it, you know?”

Arin’s mouth opened, then closed, and then he sighed a loud and defeated sigh, confusing Sung even further. “...I don’t, unfortunately. So could I get an explanation please?” The alien begged. 

Dan lit up immediately, just as he had when explaining music earlier on. “Well, MacGyver is a TV show. Character. Fuck, he’s both, now that I think about it. That’s not the point.” Again, with the references. Was there really that much to allude to in everyday conversation? Sung didn’t know how they managed it. “The point is the whole show’s about how he usually ends up in crazy situations, which he then solves by using things at his disposal and his intellect!”

“Yeah but that’s straight up fiction, Dan!” Arin groaned loudly. “Ready-strike matches and flattened out duct tape isn’t going to cut it with…” He flapped his hands. “This!”

It was Dan’s turn to be unfazed, it seemed, his entire demeanor unbothered as he continued on. “And we don’t have anything else to go on. What’s the harm in seeing if we can rig it up somehow, check if it has anything else inside of it? Unless…” He glanced Sung’s way surreptitiously. “You want to try talking to it again.”

He didn’t. He really, really didn’t. “I think your idea is worth a shot. Maybe even see if we can override any of it’s current functions or reprogram it...” He didn’t care if he sounded too eager. He’d do anything to get this idea off the ground. Anything to keep him from being near that thing again.

“See, Sung gets it. Brilliant.” Danny grinned before looping an arm around his best friend. “It looks like we’re going to the mall tomorrow, guys! Spring break! Super fun!”

“Um, first of all, you owe me Wendy’s if we’re going there. Second of all, what are we going to do with him?” Right. His ears, his eyes… He touched the points of them self consciously, half glancing down. 

“Well. There’s ways of making it work...” Danny said after a long moment of studying him, causing Sung to blush when he realized it. “Gonna be honest with both of you though, I’m friggin’ pooped. So we’ll take care of it tomorrow because I’m going the fuck to bed.” 

“With that thing just hanging out in your room!?” Arin gave a short and disbelieving laugh. “Oh, good fucking luck. I’m pulling an all nighter. Forget that.”

“I’m with Arin, actually.” Sung decided to inform both boys before another one of their infamous circular conversations started up again. “There’s just... too much going on in my head.”

“Seriously?” How could Danny be so calm? He seemed so imperturbable in the face of everything. Infallible. He scruffed up Arin’s hair first as he stood, then Sung’s as he walked past, managing to surprise him with the easy and caring touch. “Well, plenty of space on the bed if you two scaredy cats want it.” He said over his shoulder, smiling at them.

“I’ll take the tub first, asshole!” Arin called after the older boy before flopping back against the couch, sketching a brow in Sung’s direction. “...So…”

“So…” He echoed back, shifting his weight around awkwardly. 

Arin’s eyes darted to the strange wooden box that sat the farthest away from the robot-sentinel-man. “...You, uh, wanna play Megaman?”

*

It had been a night without any kind of dreams whatsoever, such a rare occurrence that Dan couldn’t recall the last time it had happened to him. Probably because real life didn’t seem that real anymore, not after everything that had happened since turning 18. Danny lay in his bed for a moment as he came to himself fully, letting the morning light wash over him. 

He drew in a satisfied breath through his nose and rolled onto his back, starting his morning prayers. He had missed the previous night’s because of all the chaos and almost murders and, well, Sung, but there wasn’t much he could do about it now except pray super-extra hard. “ _Modeh_ _ani_ _lef_ -” He began to mumble in a sleep heavy voice, snuggling down under his down comforter.

“Son of a bitch!”

Dan sighed and closed his eyes, ignoring the way his temple twitched, continuing on despite the interruption. “- _anecha_. _Melech_ _chai_ _vekayom_. _Shehechezarta_ _bi_ _ni_ -”

“Nonononono!”

“ _Bi_ _nishmati_!” He said a bit louder and pointedly, hoping that would get the point across. “ _Bechemia!_ _Raba_ _Enum_ -”

“JUMP!”

“HEY!” 

His curls went flying as he sat up, falling over his eyes in a curtain and obscuring his vision. And while he could expect a lot of things now after everything that had happened, Sung and Arin sitting shoulder to shoulder in front of his TV wasn’t one of them. “...Did you…” His words trailed off as he pushed his hair back, trying to make sense of what was going on. Megaman. They were on the last god damn level of Megaman. “Did you stay up all night playing that?” He whispered, voice a mix of horror and amazement.

“Maybe.” Sung said a little too quickly, not looking at either of them.

“Definitely.” Arin told him truthfully, much to Sung’s visible chagrin. “We’re so close Dan.”

They had all sorts of snacks spread out in front of them that Arin must have grabbed from upstairs, and emptied bottles of sodas too. Any other day, any other life, with any other color filling Sung’s eyes and Dan could have almost seen this as normal instead of completely fucking weird.

But nothing was normal anymore.

He slipped out of bed to stand over them, scratching at his flat stomach absently as he took it in. “Your parents are already gone, by the way. I think there was an emergency at the hospital for your mom, and your dad’s always out at the crack of dawn, that crazy son of a bitch.” Arin half grinned. “We can go after Sung beats this level. He’s been learning how to speedrun.” 

Dan’s brows jumped as he looked at the alien, who blushed modestly in turn. “It’s just learning the series of patterns and layout of the levels. S’not that hard.” He mumbled to himself. “The worst part was learning how the enemies worked, which ones to attack, which ones to ignore...”

“So wait, you’ve beaten it already?” Dan said slowly, brows raising even further somehow. 

Arin’s grin grew in excitement. “This’ll be the third time around. He’s a god damn natural at this.”

 _Slicha_... “You serious?” 

“Promise. Next time, we’ll film it.” Arin told him gleefully.

Fucking unbelievable. This really was fucking weird. 

Keeping his distance from the sentinel, Dan snuck past them to his dresser drawers, eager to begin their quest. “You still feeling the windbreaker, bud, or you wanna try something else?” He called over to the alien who had begun to play the game once more, the blue bomber no more than a blur under his command. 

Sung didn’t respond immediately, fingers tapping away furiously at the NES pad, impossible eyes glued to the television screen as he did. Dan had never seen Wily’s health bar go down so fast before! He really was a natural. Which... didn’t make a lick of sense, now that he thought about it. You didn’t get that kind of hand-eye coordination overnight. Even if and when you played a game for six hours plus.

The final hit landed and Arin let out a victorious whoop, pulling Dan out of his thoughts and back into the present. Arin was screaming something about how that was “a new world record!” but Sung wasn’t paying attention to him. Rather, he was watching the screen, eyes somehow tracking the flashing words there.

‘Fight, Megaman! For everlasting peace!’ It proclaimed before Rock began to run past seemingly endless mountains, slowly but surely making his way back to his family. “Sung.” Danny called again, lips turning down faintly. 

“Hm? Oh, uh, you can surprise me.” Sung told him, eyes catching Dan’s for only a moment before going back to Dr. Light, Roll, and Rock on the screen, the image already beginning to fade to black. “I trust you, Dan.” Sung swallowed, then scrubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, as if suddenly realizing just how miserable he must seem. “I trust you…”

Dan couldn’t help but think that was a terrible decision on his part, but he didn’t quite have the heart to tell the alien boy that.

It didn’t matter in the end though, because the moment Danny pulled out the oversized jean jacket from his closet Sung’s expression cleared, becoming absolutely elated. “Oh. Oh is that for me?” He whispered in a mystified voice as he skipped over, nearly petting the denim with his pale palms.

“That and some sweats, some keds, and that piss yellow shirt over there!” Arin broke in. “Dan’s fashion sense strikes again, it seems.”

Danny sniffed, trying his best not to be offended. “I, for one, think yellow will be a good color for him.”

“Oh, what, because it matches his eyes?” Arin blew a loud and unimpressed raspberry. “Yeah, right.”

“...I mean, I like it.” Sung piped up sweetly, the perfect balm against Arin’s scathing words. Dan opened his mouth to thank him but Arin snorted under his breath and rolled his eyes.

“You’re wearing a woman’s windbreaker, Sung.”

“And?”

“That invalidates your opinion, bud.” 

The alien gasped and clutched the jean jacket to his chest. “Rude!” He deplored, which only gained him a shrug and a smirk in response.

“You’re just mad because I’m right.”

“Nu-uh.”

“Yeah-huh.”

“Alright!” Dan nearly shrieked. “Just! Go put your clothes on!” He pointed at Sung, who scuttled off the moment the finger fell on him. “And you! You go… go start up the car!” He tossed his keys at Arin before he could object, pointing up the stairs until the younger boy got the hint and left.

For a single, suspended moment in time, there was quiet to be had. Not the same type that resided in his dreams, but softer kind. He took to seating himself on the floor of his room, keeping his back to Sung’s robot friend, as he went about finding his inner peace before beginning his prayers again.

“I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King. For You have mercifully restored my soul within me. Your faithfulness is great, amen.” 

“...Who are you speaking to?” 

Dan nearly leapt out of his own skin at the sound of the other boy’s voice, reigning in his terrified screech with a loud coughing fit. He hadn’t expected Sung to be so quick, but there he was in the jacket, sweatpants, and shirt… the last being backwards, hilariously enough.

“Uh, God. The big G-Man. _Adonai_.” Not a single one of those was sticking it seemed as Sung cocked his head at him,not surprising Danny in the slightest. Sung hadn’t even known what New York was earlier, or how music was or how it was made. How was he supposed to understand something as abstract as that? “Around the entire world, people have different beliefs on who and what brought them here. Or like... why they exist and stuff like that. This is just one way I can speak to the guy I assume like, brought me here. Let him know what’s going on.” Dan explained.

“And can he hear you?” Sung questioned, sounding choked almost. 

“No one knows, Sung. And that boils down to a little thing we like to call _faith_.” Faith that some higher power would hear and heed you, showing you benevolence and love in times of need. Dan groaned and rubbed his face then, not quite sure how they got here of all places, especially after waking up to Megaman. “Christ, it’s too early to be getting this existential, not to mention I’m a terrible Jew. I just do this mostly because my parents tell me to. It’s just our… our ritual, you know? It’s just what we do. We exist for God, and God exists for us.” Dan noticed he had that strange flower of his tucked into his hair once more, his fingers rubbing the petals worriedly, only seeming half there with him. 

“...But maybe..” Dan felt his voice drop without meaning to, each word holding it’s own gravity and weight as they fell out of him. ”Just maybe... we’re just all made of star-stuff like Sagan said, just floating along until the next big thing hits.” 

Dan looked at him then and Sung looked back, lips parting with revelation at his words, eyes doing that strange thing where they almost seemed to light up again, just as they had the night before. “We have to get to the bottom of this.” He told the alien in his firmest yet kindest voice, standing up to step close to him. “You’re here for a reason, Sung. You didn’t come here by mistake, or by accident. Not when we share the same dreams and know the same things despite only having just met.” The light, the power, the screaming… 

The Starlight Brigade.

The name too had rung true through him, like some kind of call. For who or what, he didn’t know, but he had that same feeling as Sung.

Faith wouldn’t be enough. Not for this, at least. And as reassuring as the idea was, God wouldn’t be able to help them now either. This wasn’t his turf. “We don’t get a choice like Arin does. You and me, this is our thing, so I’m going to ask you to do the most serious thing a person can do.”

His throat bobbed but Sung finally nodded after a minute, dark eyes shining like pools of midnight in his too pale face, making him look terribly alien. “Pinky promise me that we’ll save the day, no matter what.” Dan said as he held his finger out, hoping he’d understand.

“...Like Megaman?” Sung whispered, not so much excited as he sounded _hopeful_ at the prospect, latching his finger with Dan’s immediately.

Dan sketched a grin at him. “Like motherfuckin’ Megaman.” 


	4. Chapter 4

Sung was beginning to suspect that humans were very excessive, and that they took pride in that fact.

He was staring at the thing they called the mall with saucer wide eyes, his mouth agape, his heart soaring at the sight. Here he had been thinking Dan’s house was big, unnecessarily so, but this was something completely else. And then there were all the different cars, and the people driving them, and then the people walking around too! All different shapes and sizes and colors...

“Hey, get down.” Arin hissed from the passenger seat, trying (and failing) to slap Sung’s head, apparently no longer afraid now that the robot was locked up in Dan’s bathroom back home. “Don’t let anyone see you, dumb dumb!”

“But  _ look _ at it!” Sung marvelled, unable to help himself. Between the sun peeking between the fluffy clouds above head and the girl named Madonna trilling on about celebrating and having fun, he was going absolute stir crazy just sitting here and just watching everyone. “What’s even in there?”

“Stores.” Dan answered with a large smile. “Many, many stores.”

He gasped delicately, fingers curling on the window. “Why so many?”

“Because each one has a different purpose. For the most part, at least.” Like music then, Sung surmised. Similarities here and there, but also all kinds of variety. How exciting! “You’ll see here when we get inside.”

He nearly threw himself over the armrest and into the front of the car as soon as the words left Dan’s mouth, but he managed to contain himself, forcing himself to sit completely still until Dan turned towards him in the backseat. “Now we gotta set a few ground rules.” Dan began. “We’re going to Radioshack and that’s that.”

“But my frosty!” Arin interjected, eliciting a loud ‘shush!’ from Dan in response.

“My Yaya gave me some money for my birthday so we’ll use that to get whatever we can that looks like it’ll do the job. Sung. I’m gonna need you to stick close, okay? And I’m gonna need you to wear these too.”

Danny held something out to him then that prompted a gleeful giggle from Arin, his hands coming together to clap delightedly. “Old people glasses! Did you get those from your Yaya too? Look at those fuckers!”

“They’re authentic Terminator glasses, actually.” Dan said cooly, extending his reach. “Just like Schwarzenegger.”

Arin’s mouth fell open immediately and he began to shriek. “WHEN DID YOU GET _ THOSE!? _ ”

Unseen to Arin, Dan rolled his eyes and mouthed a ‘not really’ at Sung, nearly causing him to laugh out loud. He took the pitch black wrap-arounds instead and plopped them onto his face soundlessly, taken aback by how dark everything seemed now that they were on. “Oh, what?! He looks fucking cool wearing them. That’s not fucking fair!” Arin blustered, really getting into it now. “Why can’t you… dude, why can’t you just be a  _ normal  _ alien?”

“...Normal?” Sung asked, curious as to what ‘alien’ meant to these, well, extremely alien beings to him.

“Like a...a little green martian, y’know! Not some kind of  _ space _ Adonis!” Arin huffed and puffed. “Oh look at me! I’m Sung the spaceman! I have nice muscles and poofy golden hair! I’m so hot!”

“Arin, for the love of God, shut the  _ actual _ fuck up.” Danny groaned, a hint of a laugh slipping through, his cheeks dimpling with the effort. “Get out of my car.  _ Yatsa _ , you fuck!”

And like that, quick as lightning, they were out in the world once more, so very different from when darkness fell over it. In daylight, everything stood out distinctly, thrown into sharp relief. Somewhere, a child was crying, there was laughter in the air. Something smelt like the right kind of decay on the air, and the sun was  _ right  _ there.

It didn’t feel quite right, but it did feel pretty good. 

Dan and Arin were already making a beeline to the entrance so Sung scurried after them, heart beating loudly in his chest as they approached the glass doors, his excitement damn near palpable, at least to him. “Are you sure we can’t get any food? I’m starving!” He heard Arin insist from ahead.

“Dude. You ate half my kitchen last night. You can hold off.” Dan informed him, apathetic to his plight.

Sung was about to call after them that he was pretty hungry too when he crashed into someone right at the threshold of the sliding glass doors, hands going out to catch them awkwardly before they both hit the ground. “I’m sor-” He began to blurt, not quite making the shape of them until they were both steadied out. 

It was a girl with a wild mass of blonde curls of her head, lips the brightest pink Sung could imagine possible in the entire world. They pulled up immediately, forming her mouth into a coy smile directed right at him. “Hey there, lover boy.” She cooed, batting her long lashes. “Gettin’ a lil handsy there.” 

He turned painfully red and immediately took his hands off her, a thousand excuses rushing to his tongue. “I just, uh, I didn’t… I mean!”

“I’m just yanking your chain, babe.” She laughed and something about it seemed off.  _ Everything _ about her seemed off the longer they stood there, which was an unsettling fact given that she was all but a complete stranger to him, nothing less, nothing more. Maybe it was because he hadn’t really met a girl yet, he tried to tell himself. Yeah, that was it. “Those are some pretty cool shades you got there.” She tilted her head to the left, then grinned, knife like. “Ya trying to hide something behind there?”

He somehow went both hot and cold at her words, everything in him screaming to get away fast, so he gave what he hoped was a casual laugh and stumbled back, past the glass and into the safety of the mall’s entrance. “I uh, gotta meet up with my friends.” It wasn’t a lie, but it came out of him sounding like one, all kinds of garbled and rushed as it filled the air between them. “Sorry.”

“Don’t mention it.” She raised her hand to him, still smiling, still just  _ standing  _ there as the sun beat down on her head, as the sweat dripped down her brow. 

He didn’t like it. Not one bit. Not at all.

But he couldn’t think about that.

Upon getting his bearings once more the feeling of unease gave away slightly, the awe of what was before him coming back. Danny  _ was _ right. There were so many stores. Each one boasting clothes, food, furniture, more! Was it anything like this back home?

...Was there even a home back there waiting for him...?

Sung shrugged himself further back into his jacket at the thought and sighed under his breath irritably. He just had to focus on finding Danny and Arin now. Radioshack… They had said Radioshack.

He had taken a literal single step when someone else entered his personal orbit. This time it being a young man, maybe even younger than Arin, with strange pieces of metal on his teeth and even stranger, almost  _ angry _ looking red growths all over his shining features. “Hi there! I work down at the Panda Express right next to the sub shop down there. Would you like to try some our Orange Chicken? It’s a new recipe!” He lisped excitedly, shoving the plate at him.

“Uh…” Sung faltered back a step, not quite understanding what was happening at all. 

“It’s free! Try it! Seriously!” Arin had introduced him to all kinds of snacks and food the night before, but he hadn’t seen anything like this before. He couldn’t help but stare at the strange sticked thing being held out to him for what was apparently too long, or maybe too hard, because the boy was starting to get nervous and dance around. “Are you like, one of those vegans, or…?”

Without any kind of warning Sung made the executive decision to pop the whole thing in his mouth, not thinking anything of it until he bit down. “Oh! Oh ow!” Hot and sharp and… weirdly good tasting despite all that. Huh... “I think it could use some work.” He grimaced, unable to help himself.

“You’re not supposed to eat the  _ toothpick! _ ” He shrieked back, undeniably horrified.

“The what now?” Copper lay thick on his tongue and it took only a moment for him to realize he was bleeding inside his own mouth. Good thing his sentinel wasn’t here to crush in the kid’s skull. “Oh, oh uh… hm.” Had he swallowed it all? Sung reached into his mouth and pulled out what broken bits of wood he could grab, not so much as sparing them a second glance as they fell into his palm. 

“Do I… give it back to you?” He asked as he held them out, only for the boy to run in the opposite direction, shaking his head to himself. “...Well then!” The kid had offered, after all. It wasn’t his fault.

Sung kept tonguing the roof of his mouth as he traveled further into the mall, giving pause when he found himself at a crossroads of sorts. “Radioshack, Radioshack.” He said to himself, tapping Danny’s too large shoe against the shining floor. “Where’s the freakin’ Radioshack, huh?”  
“You looking for Radioshack?” It was _another_ woman this time speaking to him, but she had dark skin and what appeared to be a very, very small human (a baby, Sung’s mind supplied seconds later, who gave him a gummy smile of delight) in a rolling cart. “You’re gonna want to go down there to the left, past Kay-Bee toys and the music place, sugar.”

“...Music?” He hadn’t meant for it to sound so mystified, so  _ enamored _ , but something in his voice gave at it. It was like the call of stars, in a way. The strangest of pulls, an inexplicable aching in his heart.

She gave a delighted laugh which her baby echoed shriekingly to the glass above. “Yes baby. I think they’ve got a sale on drum kits right now if you wanna peep it.” She put her hand on her hip then, studying him, but it wasn’t anything like the first girl he had met. That had been predatory almost. “Y’know? You look like you could be a superstar with those neat glasses of yours, like a mix of Michael J. Fox and Johnny Depp. Some kind of model!”   
Wow. Humans really, _really_ liked their references, didn’t they? He had a feeling what she was saying was a compliment, so he beamed in response, feeling much better than before, and waved at the baby before heading to the left, carrying on. Stores and stores and stores! Why and how did they need so much? You could only carry so much with you, and put it in a room to sit there and collect dust too once you didn’t have the space for it.

He had a feeling it was all kinds of bullshit until he saw it.

The god damn  _ keytar _ .

  
  


*

He had fucked up.

Dan had simply been doing what he did all the time, no matter what. Bickering with Arin. You could barely call it that either because there was never any bad feelings behind it, especially now that the air had cleared with animosity between his best friend and Sung, but  _ still _ . The verbal cuttage was scathing, downright savage at times. The likes of which caused nearby eyes to widen and mothers to cover their children’s ears with looks of annoyance and disbelief. 

“Hey hey!” Arin cut in suddenly, breaking the flow. Danny gave him a ‘are you serious?’ look as they stopped near the JC Penney’s entrance, knowing he had been winning the argument this time around. But the younger boy’s expression was becoming concerned,  _ especially _ as he spun around. “Uh, dude…”

“Heh?”

“We uh… lost Sung.”

Danny came up short but didn’t quite take to it, refusing to really, barking out a laugh instead. “Good one, big cat!” He began as he spun on his heel. What a weak card to pull at the last second, trying to distract him. Just who did Arin Hanson think he was? 

But when he completed his turn, he found the space behind them to hold the absolute worst truth. 

He really wasn’t there. 

He was  _ gone. _

“Oh God.” Danny whispered before covering his face with hands, issuing a miserable noise as the reality of what was happening hit him full force. They had lost an alien, a literal alien, in one of New Jersey’s biggest malls. “Okay, fuck. Fuck, okay.” They had done that in what? Ten minutes? Less? Trace your steps back. Remain calm. His hands found his hair instead, running through the curls distractedly, over and over again. “Uh, fuck, okay, uh.” 

“Dan.” Arin called his name loudly.

“Uhhh…” He groaned back, fingers snagging on a knot. 

“Daniel Leigh Avidan.”

He just needed  _ one  _ second to think. To get it sorted. To fix it up. Fuck.

“Dude.” There were hands on his shoulders shaking him until he finally came back to his senses, the world spinning around. “One. You’re muttering to yourself in friggin’ Hebrew, so calm down.” Was he? Oh God. “Two, he has to be somewhere in here. There’s no way that he just up and left. Did you see his face when we pulled up here?” He was right. Arin was talking to him like he was a five year old but he was  _ absolutely _ right. “Now, think about it. He barely knows anything about this place, so I’m sure if we just ask if there’s some tiny idiot in a bright yellow shirt running around and doing dumb stuff, we’ll find him, no doubt.”

“Okay.” It was something, and something was better than nothing, so he’d take it and run until they found Sung. “Now, think of the places he’d go to too. What that little weirdo interested in.” Arin prompted.

“Don’t call him names.” Dan moaned back.

He saw Arin’s eye twitch, his eyes almost rolling back before he caught himself. “Don’t focus on that part, asshole. The other stuff. Give it to me.”

Just what was the alien interested in? Megaman? Stars? ...Music. How many times had Danny looked in the backseat to see Sung’s head booping along with the songs coming out of the stereo, his mouth trying desperately to form the words he didn’t quite yet know. “Anything to do with music, songs…” Dan finally supplied.

Arin gave his cheek a hard slap and grinned at him, the only sign of his panic showing through his hard stare. “Great start. I’ll hit Camelot’s, you get Sam Goody, and then we meet up in the food court.” At least he was making shit happen, getting them to think. Danny gave another vague nod in response, his brain still trying to still make sense of it. How had it happened so fast? How had he let it just  _ happen _ like that?

The alien boy was the only link he had to making sense of anything that had happened to him over the past five years and Danny had just lost him, more or less forgetting him like he was no more than stardust and inconsequence. And the only thing he could blame it on was his own stupidity and unawareness. Just like in the car the night before, he had nearly forgotten Sung was even back there, that he had to try and include him somehow.

He and Arin had had this dynamic of theirs for ages, but now there was another piece to slot in and consider, one which Danny wasn’t sure where it fit and how. He wanted it work though, not only because Sung had answers (at least somewhat...) but because he liked him a lot. Sure, the alien was strange and naive and otherworldly, that was a given, but he always had a smile, and Dan wanted to help him out.

That’s what friends did, after all.

At least he knew this mall like the back of his hand. That was the  _ one _ thing he had going for him. Danny began to speed walk past too familiar storefronts and kiosks, thinking of where to start. He could do what Arin said and ask around, or he could pull a mom move and call him over the intercom. 

_ Don’t. _ Again, that voice inside his head, seeming to come from his heart. Very, very insistent. Danny began to worry his bottom lip between his teeth as he stood there uselessly, fucking up the flow of foot traffic without even noticing it. It had been right every time it had called out to him, but now there was only so much time to work with before something went terribly, horribly wrong. Think, Avidan, think! What else could you do...

“Mall security!” Danny proclaimed excitedly as the thought hit him, garnering a few judging looks from shoppers nearby. Not that he cared. They’d have cameras and eyes all over the place, and maybe it’d be a little more discreet too. Once upon a time, he had hidden in the circular racks at Sears, thinking it’d be a fun prank to pull on his mom. Until they had nearly sent every employee and security guard they could to smoke him out, his poor mother crying her damn eyes out. Hopefully it wouldn’t be  _ that _ bad this time around. That had been before everything had gotten so advanced with video cameras and VHS tapes, nearly thirteen years ago.

All of those thoughts were immediately wiped from his mind when he found one guy within minutes of thinking of it, right next to the Carson’s department store. He was bland and pudgy and short; the perfect mall security cop. “Hello sir, um, I’m trying to find a friend of mine.” Dan ventured as he approached, fishing up that winning son smile of his again, hoping it’d do the trick a second time.

The guy stared back up at him, his expression flat, something about him beginning to seem…  _ off _ the longer they stood there, like the opposing force of two similar same ended magnets, propelling away from each other. “A friend, huh?” He finally said, sliding his fingers into the front pockets of his pants. “You kids getting into trouble?” 

“Uh no sir, no. Not at all.” Dan was starting to feel extremely nervous all of a sudden, sweat beading on his brow, that voice insisting to get far, far away. It's just an adult. Just a guy. He'll help you. Just tell him! “It’s just um, he’s not exactly the smartest.” He decided to go with, not sure where that would land.

Those flat, gray eyes lit up grimly, a god awful grin appeared on his thin mouth. “Oh, so he’s a reta-”

Immediate disgust rose up in Dan, forcing him to step forward as he cut him off. “No. No he’s  _ not. _ ” He snapped. God, what was wrong with this bastard? How’d they let someone like him work this kind of job? It wasn’t the first time Danny had heard people use that word, of course, but it just didn’t feel right to let is pass unnoticed. “Listen, if you see a short blonde kid my age walking around in a jean jacket, tell him… tell him Danny and Arin are around, and that we’re looking for him. Please?” He added at the last second, not liking the idea of kissing up to this jackass. 

The security guard shook his head but laughed, taking out a notepad. “Sure. Anything else I should be looking for? Some neat sneakers? Discerning scars?” He still had that smug, shitty grin on his face, like he wasn’t really taking Dan seriously. He bristled with the fact but worked his jaw silently, resisting the urge to flip the dude off.

“Glasses. Dark, wraparound glasses. You won’t see him without ‘em on.” Danny informed him in a hard voice, absolutely done. New gameplan. Move on, get away from this creep, and find Sung. 

Get it, got it, done.

“Glasses. Got it. Must got something to hide.” Oh he didn’t like that comment. Not one bit. If only Arin was here. He’d cuss the guy out, but then they’d probably be tossed out of the mall and shit out of luck, so Danny just nodded tightly and turned around. How much time had that wasted, he wondered as he stalked off. How long did he have to find Sung?

What if, God just what if, he couldn’t even manage to do  _ that? _

He wouldn’t start crying. Not in the middle of this mall, and not until he had exhausted every option he could think of. Still. Dan had to take a moment to draw in a deep breath next to a Pepsi vending machine, rubbing at his eyes quietly. Less than a day and so much had happened. More than he could have imagined happening in months, in years...

For so long this had just been his life, a secret, silent agony; and then Sung had hurtled into life, quite literally.

He just had to make it right.

“Give me a sign. Something. Anything.” He whispered to himself, hoping that strange voice would answer back and guide him to where he needed to go. But it didn’t.

Because the cacophony of glorious synth work did instead.

*

He hadn’t meant for his fingers to fly across the keys like magic, but somehow, they  _ had _ .

When he had first walked in the dark skinned man behind the counter had eyed him over his glasses, brow raising silently. “Can I help you?” He had drawled in a honeyed voice, hip cocking out. 

“The thing in the window.” A Yamaha SHS-200, it had boasted. Quicksilver and sharp as a knife. “The sign said… they were back in stock?” Sung ventured cautiously.

The black man’s expression became appraising, borderline enthused. “Mmm hmm. Shipped straight from Japan. You ever play one before?” 

He tried to think if he had. How else would the shape of the keys seem familiar to him, and why? But his mind remained quiet, an unbothered pond. “Nothing like that, no.” He finally replied, not eager to dive down right this moment, the present too tempting to fall away from.

“Oh, it’s a real blast, it is. Came out last year and put the Sholky to shame. I don’t know what they were thinking when they went red with that one.” He stepped out around the counter, leaning heavily on a fine wooden cane before offering Sung a gap toothed smile. “I can’t see your face too well with those big glasses of yours, but it’s clear you got hungry eyes. You want me to grab you the floor model? Have some fun?”

Yes. A thousand times yes. He nodded eagerly, all thoughts of finding Arin and Danny beginning to fall out of his head. It would just be a moment. Just a second in time. “I’ve uh, actually never played before.” Sung admitted as he began to follow the older man to the display window. “Someone told me about your sale, so I just wanted to stop by.”

He scoffed, incredulous. “Never played! You’re missing out! I got a penchant for the traditional synthesizer, but I’ve got a Moog Liberation sitting at home that I’ll pull out from time to time. At least, when my damn leg isn’t giving shit. Ah, excuse my French.” He grinned, clearly not meaning it before getting back on track. “You got any kind of musical history, boy? Any at all?”

“No, sir.” Sung admitted to the best of his knowledge, wishing he did just to appease him. 

“Now  _ that’s _ a shame.” He shook his head, clicking his tongue. “My momma made me sit down in front of the keys every day after school before I could go outside to play. But that’s okay. It’s not too hard. This’s got most of the settings already pre-programmed in so it’s easy to demo to the general populace.” He was not so much as handing it over to Sung as he was offering it to him then, like a precious artifact. Sung took it cautiously,  _ carefully _ , heart thudding with the fact. “Now put the strap over you, right? And then I’ll show you what buttons you press to start.”

It had settled over him easily, resting against his chest, almost half his size! “Alright. Here and here and then you’re good to go. Make some noise. Go wild.” The older man waved his hands about easily, smiling at him as he stepped back. “Tear it up.”

Sung laid his fingers against the keys and closed his eyes with a slow breath, feeling the pads of his fingers slip over them. He wanted to make something in that moment. A dreamer’s song, if you will. Something beautiful. Something raw. 

Something made up of hope and starlight and _love_.

And with fingers pressed into the keys, it came  _ spilling _ out, coming up and out from that deep, dark abyss inside of him and into the store. It was the opposite side to every fear and struggle Sung had had since waking up in the carved out cavity of that sentinel of his, silver lined and effervescent. Like a single star up in the sky, or a flower’s petals against his heart.

It was a song for someone waiting, made to fill distance and space-time.

He was more than this. More than Sung. More than flesh and blood and mystery. He was Lumen, he was other, he was-!

“Sung!”

Reality never hit so fast, so  _ hard _ before, causing him to gasp gutturally. It hurt, he realized as he bent over the instrument. Hurt to come back to this alien world where he didn’t truly belong. “God.” He choked out, vision clearing to reveal Dan. 

_ Dan _ . Earth. The mall. Here. He pushed out a pained breath, fingers tightening on the neck of the keytar, ears ringing like the washing in and out like waves against the shore. “Jesus Christ, Sung.” He heard Danny whisper in a disbelieving voice. “ _ Stop _ .”

“Stop what?” He dared to ask, only for the question to leave him in a strange and foreign tongue. He felt his eyes widen from behind his glasses, Dan’s own an instant mimic in response. “Oh no.” It sounded a lot like distant ringing and whistling, akin to wind song.

Other, something, Lumen,  _ more _ . He felt like he was going to be sick, the world spinning viciously out of control. Sung could have sworn that everything had been dipped in starlight as he had played his song, almost shimmering and pulsing at the edges, but that would be impossible.

This was  _ all  _ impossible, he had to remind himself.

Fuck.

He breathed out again despite not having anymore breath in him, lungs rattling with it. Back take it back take it back, God, take it  _ back _ from him. He couldn’t be this… this... thing he was supposed to be. He couldn’t handle it. Not right now at least. “Stop.” He begged the growing well inside of him, threatening to swallow him whole. “Stop it  _ now _ .”

It only yawned wider before pulling him

_ down and down and down and _

_ bottomless it was bottomless and unending and wrong _

_ they had put it there _

_ that thing _

_ that unyielding unforgiving thing _

_ dark and devouring  _

_ made of unmaking _

_ picking him apart _

_ digging in until it pulled that last remnant out of him _

_ that very last spark _   
  


He was heaving, on the floor, the ceiling above him going dark, Danny nowhere to be found. _This_ was dying. _This_ was death. Sung was certain of it. He clutched at the keytar, trying his best to inhale-exhale-push it out. Out, he begged the darkness coiling deep within him. Get _out!_

Somewhere, someone laughed, girlish and brittle-bright. “Did you really think you could get away from us? That you could  _ escape _ _?_ Jeesh! Your friends thought they were so clever, sending you to this universe, but they weren’t expecting you to pull this.” He blinked and saw a girl coming to stand above him. The same pink lipped one from outside. Her smile was just as saccharine sweet, her hair still beautifully curled, but then she was someone different in a blink of an eye. Someone unshapely and leering and beady eyed. "I'm surprised you have any light left in you." He said, the badge on his chest catching in the overhead lights. "I could have sworn we got it all out."

“What are you?” Sung grit out, panting for breath, phrasing the exact question he had asked himself right back at the man.

He snorted and it was ugly. “They really did a number on you to not remember  _ us, _ didn’t they?” He grinned, lips splitting leisurely. “We are  _ Dechoir _ . Agents of Boredom. Killers of stars! Ringing any bells?” The security guard leaned down, shifting into the young girl once more like it was nothing, still smiling her awful smile at him. “No...? We’re your worst nightmare, Lumen. The thing that snuffs you  _ out _ .”

Where was Danny? And the man running the shop? Had this amalgamous creature killed them? Or were they somewhere else? Sung sucked in another desperate breath, trying to force his body up. “Haven’t done… that great of a job…” He managed out when it refused to work with him. “Given… that I’m still… giving you lip."

Her brow slanted sharply in response, annoyance leaking out. “You can thank Malaise for that coincidence. Remember her?” He must have given her a blank stare because she was tutting her tongue condescendingly, circling around. “That’s probably for the best. What matters now is that she’ll be happy to know we found you, and… this  _ place  _ as well.”

No. No, no,  _ no _ . These things, this  _ Dechoir _ , had to be what had speared that planet from his dreams with firelight. Her foot came down on the keytar though before he could move, pinning him in place with a clanging and discordant sound, her eyes alight. “We may not have taken Estrellium yet, but this could be just as good of a starting place as any. And it’s all thanks to you-!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it, bitch.”

Something dark and heavy came down on her head, so violently that her entire body crumpled with it as she fell to the floor. Sung’s head shot up to find Arin standing there, chest heaving, hair falling over his face in a fine mess, eyes widening as reality hit. “Fuck!” He screamed abruptly, scaring the shit out of Sung. “What the _fuck!_ ”

“Go!” Sung finally found the means to control his body once more, forcing himself to stand, the keytar swinging wildly around him. No, wait, not yet. Danny. They couldn’t leave without him! Sung's head whipped one direction before going the other way, silent terror washing over him until he found the store owner and the other boy laying on the floor oh-so-quietly. “Put that shit down and go!” He commanded Arin frenziedly, trying his best not to throw up.

It wasn’t like when he told the robot what to do though. In fact, the complete opposite. Arin began to bawl, big, fat tears rolling down his cheeks, shoulders beginning to fall. “It’s got my fingerprints all over it!” He told him between guttural and shaking sobs, snot spilling out. “She's dead! Oh God, she's dead!” She was most definitely  _ not  _ dead, but there was no reasoning with the younger boy at this point anymore. 

Sung dove at Danny and the older man and yanked them up, uncaring of what he pulled or bruised in the process. They had to go. Had to go  _ now! _ “Forget it! Come on!” He couldn’t pull all three of them out. Two was already too much…

Some higher power had to have him in his favor though, maybe even Dan's _Adonai_ , because Arin cooperated after a handful of seconds, clutching the large device as they hurried towards the emergency exit, blubbering the entire time. And it wasn't like Sung could blame him, not when he had had his own breakdown only a night before. Still. Focus. Survive. Think of it in Megaman terms, he told himself desperately. Speed, precision, luck. “Keys.” He spat, shoving through the back door.

Arin barely managed to follow suit, mouth agape. “What, why!?”

“BECAUSE WE HAVE TO  _ DRIVE! _ ” He very nearly shrieked, the words tearing out of him.

“Oh God, okay, okay. Fuck.” They were on the back lot now and Sung didn’t even know where that was in correlation to where they had originally parked, but it was better than being in that deathtrap. At least it was a start. “We gotta… gotta go around this way.” Arin sniffled before he began to whimper to himself. “Oh my God, I killed her. I really did, God.”

“You didn’t kill her.” Sung said through clenched teeth, sticking close to the wall. “She’s not even human. She’s… she’s something else.”

Arin managed not only to stumble to a stop at that piece of information, but also almost fell completely over himself. “WHAT?!” He yelped.

“Just shut up!”

How many more were there, he couldn’t help but think. Were they lying in wait, ready to jump them from the shadows, or had it just been the shapeshifter back in the mall? God. Sung could feel the glasses slipping down his nose and while it was probably the most inconsequential thing in his life currently, he shoved them back up immediately, stupidly relieved by the one thing he could actively control. 

“Oh my God, this is really happening. First you, now this bitch.” Arin was digging around Danny’s pockets as Sung carried him, frantically rambling on. “She… she said this could be a starting place. She thanked you!”

“She didn’t mean it like that.” They couldn’t do this dance of distrust again. Not this far down the path. “Stay with me, okay?” One of them had to remain sane or they would both be royally fucked. “Someone’s going to have to drive…”

“HAS TO _WHAT?!?!_ ” This scream was somehow even louder than the last, echoing through the sky and what could only be assumed was the rest of the entire parking lot. Sung’s dark eyes swung to his, fury and fear mounting inside of him. “No. I can’t.” Arin panted.

“Danny’s out for the count!” And he couldn’t drive. Arin at least had to have some basic knowledge of how roads worked and where to go. Sung didn’t even know where to start. The younger boy wasn’t going to listen to him though, it seemed, too busy shaking his head and place-pacing himself.

“He’ll wake up any second now. Any minute.” Arin insisted, very clearly desperate.

“No, he won’t.” This wasn’t the same kind of unconsciousness that had fallen over Arin the day before. This was something different. “So unless you want to die today, Arin, you’re going to get that car and get us out.”

His voice was a failing whisper, only able to reach Arin given it’s seriousness. He released a pained groan between his teeth before pointing his finger at him. “What about that guy?” Right. The older black man. Sung hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of just leaving him behind with that Dechoir thing, but there wasn’t really anywhere they could now take him. But hadn't Danny said something  about money his Yaya had given him? Sung went digging into his pocket until he found the creased envelope, pressing it into the other man’s hand. Hopefully that would be enough for everything that had happened, plus the dark box Arin had kept as well. 

Sung was about to pull the keytar off too when the younger boy made a sound of discontent, very clearly trying to stop him. “Let me guess, finger prints.” Sung deadpanned.

Arin's nostrils flared as he gave him a firm nod. “Mmm-hmm.”

“You seem to be forgetting the fact that I’m not from here, Arin.” The alien gave a humorless laugh before completely dropping it. There wasn’t any point in being contrarian and dragging it out. “Just… get the car.” A home that wasn’t even his real home was all he could depend on anymore, Sung realized as Arin began to finally run off, and even that wasn’t that dependable. One wrong step, one wrong move, and it could be ripped away in seconds, leaving him on the streets of a strange world while monsters hunted down in full daylight.

He touched the flower in his pocket anxiously, still somehow with him despite it all, and turned his face up. He could still hear the song he had made up winding through his mind, the bits and pieces starting to line up. There had been something on his mind in that moment, a pull in both his soul and heart.

He wanted…

(Something. No. Not that.)

God, he just wanted…

(Someone)

He felt a petal give and come off in his fingers, and a name came to his mouth. 

“Phobos.” He called it out to the sky softly, despite not knowing who, or even why.


	5. Chapter 5

Something wasn’t quite right.

Dan was falling. Not like Samael, who in the Talmud had seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden, damning and outright; but rather a gentler kind of descent, like dropping into twilight.

Before this, this moment, this place, there had been _starlight_. He remembered that much as he continued to drop. That and the growing sense of panic and, strangely enough, excitement upon seeing it. But where had it come from? What had it meant?

Go further go deeper go…

 _Up_ , that voice called suddenly from all around him.

_Ascend._

He broke through the surface and became someone else without meaning to. Like calling to like across distance and space time.

He opened his eyes and became Sung, five years ago.

*

_“Listen, just because it’s your birthday doesn’t mean you get to sleep the entire day away.”_

_“Actually, I think it does.”_

_The flat of the other boy’s practice sword came up against Sung’s immediately, eliciting a loud and terrifying ‘crack!’ across the practice space. It was just the two of them for the first time in what felt like forever, the sun falling through the stained glass painting them in endless rainbows and light._

_The other boy was_ iridescent _like this, there was no other way to describe it. A translucent opal that sang when the light hit his scaled skin, it’s purity broken only by the dark arc of horns coming off his forehead and pitched sclera of his slanting eyes. “You don’t get to have your cake and eat it too.” He grinned at Sung teasingly before twirling away._

_“Then what’s even the point of having a birthday?” Sung posed before he lunged forward violently, going for the throat. But the other boy was ready, his parry instantaneous. Not only deflecting Sung’s attack, but sweeping him off his feet too, causing him to hit the padded floor with loud grunt._

_“To get your just desserts, clearly.” The other boy laughed loudly then, booping the end of Sung’s nose playfully. “That’s three to one, by the way.”_

_“One of which I am very proud!” Sung insisted, tossing his sweat damp hair off his brow with a heavy huff._

_The other boy giggled, clearly delighted. “_ One _which I gave you, because it’s your birthday, and because I felt bad.” He turned his assault on Sung’s flushed cheeks then, tapping the skin carefully over and over again, giggles bubbling up and out of him. “You’re going to have to start accepting the fact that you’re not going to be good at everything, Sung.” He hummed._

 _(..._ I’ve been looking too hard, I’ve been waiting too long… _)_

_Sung began to pout, doing his best to knock the dull sword point away, failing miserably. “I’m good at some things.” He told the other alien, his own features becoming all kinds of sly._

_“Oh?” The other boy’s fine eyebrows quirked just so as he pressed his sword point into the ground, his hair a curtain of white as it fell over them as he bowed his body into Sung’s. “Such as?” He whispered in a voice that already seemed to know._

_(..._ I need to know if you feel it too... _)_

_The golden haired alien propped himself up onto his elbows, reaching up to tug a lock. “Like kissing you.” He murmured in a low voice before pulling the other boy down, speaking against his mouth in a pleased way the moment their lips first touched, voice a lover’s sigh._

_(..._ I’ve been _waiting!_ For someone _new._ To make me feel alive…! _)_

*

_“I’ve been waiting-!”_

_“MIZDAYEN!”_

Any other time randomly jolting up and screaming at the top of his lungs would be a little troublesome, yes, but nothing _too_ out of the ordinary. But this was the one time he was apparently in the backseat of his own car, his head cradled in Sung’s lap, Arin in the front, apparently driving. The outburst caused the alien to scream, which then caused Arin to scream, of course. And then, because Murphy’s fucking law, the car began to swerve wildly out of control.

“FUCKING DRIVE.” Dan bellowed as they careened into the oncoming lane, his heart leaping up into his throat as his eyes met with the other driver’s as they blasted towards them.

“I AM!” Arin shrieked as he yanked the wheel in the other direction, getting them back on the course. Just in time too, the distant blow of a savage horn the only indication of what had just happened to them. Danny blew out a shaking breath then, hand going to his crotch to make sure he hadn’t gone and peed. “Why… are we in my car?” He finally managed out. They had been at the mall, and then they had lost Sung, and then…? It was all blurred, not quite making sense inside his blank slate mind. “Why are you driving?!”

“Well Sung said he couldn’t, not that I should be either, but that’s not important.” Arin clenched the wheel a little tighter, his nose practically touching the glass as he sat at the very edge of the driver’s seat. “This bastard gets lost, and then you apparently find him, which congrats I guess. Then a bunch of shit happened that I wasn’t there for, and then there was another motherfucking alien.”

“Another?” Of course, God of course his brain would choose to remember then, the curtain pulling back to reveal the dream in it’s fully glory. The iridescent boy, the rainbow room, the taste of his sweat on Sung’s tongue as they kissed and fell to the ground. Dan covered his face with an embarrassed sound, the fact that that had been his first real makeout sesh without actually being _his_ absolutely killing him. 

“Yup, another one! And it can shapeshift!” Arin cackled maniacally, misunderstanding him. “But I’ll let Sung take over the storytelling because _I_ have to _drive!_ ”

Sung’s eyes met his, the visor now up on his forehead, dark eyes taking his entire face up. “I’m sorry.” He blurted immediately before Danny could even start. “I was trying to find you. I really was. But there was this girl, and she made me feel weird, and then I got lost, and then I found this keytar store. And then-” He pulled in a worried breath.

The music. The _stars_.

Danny’s hand shot out, slapping it’s way across Sung’s open mouth, sealing it off. “Shut up for literally one whole minute because I need to tell you what I saw.” ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’ was ending thankfully, shifting into Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ instead. God, alright. “I get in that god damn store and you’re bent over the keytar and you’re just… you were like a fountain of _stars_.” 

More so than the meteor shower, more so than any planetarium or star chart or picture of the stars, Sung’s body had become a source of cosmic influence, a celestial body in every sense and right. And his eyes, those black eyes that were so strange, so foreign to all of them, had been something else in that moment, Dan remembered.

They had been filled with endless galaxies. Endless stars.

Sung’s brows were inching upwards but Danny kept talking, the need to tell him overpowering. “And the store owner was just watching you, entranced, and that’s when I called your name, because I was freaking the fuck out, and then you spoke and it was like…” God, what had it been like? Like a long forgotten lullaby, traipsing around his mind. “Like... magic. Fuck. I don’t know. But then they just… they died. They all died and you fell and then-”

And then _he_ had fallen. Fallen for forever and a half until he came back up again into Sung on the other side. “I was you.”

“You were me?” Sung muffled disbelievingly against Dan’s palm.

“I’M PULLING OVER.” Arin told them in a loud voice, and Danny was eternally grateful for it.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to explain what the fuck that means.” Arin said after they had gone and parked in the jankiest fashion possible, the car somehow sketched between three whole parking spots. “That or just… just drive me to the nearest psych ward, because I’ve officially gone fucking insane.”

“And we wonder why I didn’t want to tell my parents about my dreams! Pshh!” Dan flapped his hand in annoyance. “ _Lech tizdayen_!”

“Daniel! Language!”

“Wow! Please shut up!” Sung insisted, clearly pissed. He was becoming more human, Dan realized. LIttle mannerisms and meanings coming out without him even meaning to. “Can you get to the part where you became me, because there’s no denying that I hauled your ass all the way over to the car when we were running away.”

“Explain your part first.” About running away, about the everything that had happened before he had woken up in here. It was only fair, really. And maybe somewhere in that explanation he could find the middle ground. So Sung told him his part of the story, about the strange shifting thing that had spoken to him in near meaningless riddles, about the darkness put inside of him, of how their name was _Dechoir_ and how they were somehow now here, ready to take this planet apart. Danny only looked away to spare several worried glances in Arin’s direction, unsure of how he was taking it.

He looked pale, his hands shifting across the leather of the wheel distractedly as he stared outside without really seeing anything, his eyes miles wide. They hadn’t even gotten the chance to talk about everything in the mall earlier. It hadn’t seemed appropriate to, or really smart to do so either, if he was being honest with himself. He reached over then, cutting Sung off without really thinking anything of it, squeezing the younger boy’s shoulder softly.

“...You okay?”

“I killed someone today.” Arin told him, causing him to nearly choke.

Sung _tch’d_ loudly and shook his head at Dan. “He didn’t. He just knocked the other alien out cold.” He monotoned. 

“But I could have.” Arin threw back. “That could have been someone like me. Someone made of flesh and blood and bones and all that normal stuff. And I just… I brought it down.” His eyes flashed with a glimmer of tears but he was quickly looking down, hiding them. “I saw both of you on the ground and I… I _panicked._ ”

Sung leaned over to explain. “He grabbed the whole damn drum kit.” Is that what that thing was in the front seat? And what else? Oh God, the _keytar_. Danny didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. An injured person, stolen property… what if they ended up on the news? What would he tell his parents then? Losing car privileges would be the least of his troubles... “Now explain your part, the part about being me.” Sung pried.

“Well…” Danny slumped further back into his seat, issuing a loud sigh. “I was falling down, and then the other way.” He heard Arin mutter something about Alice in Wonderland, but chose not to react verbally. “And then yeah. I was _you._ You were younger, for sure. Not like a baby, but our age! And it was your birthday!” The more he said out loud the less it made sense, but there was no other way of describing it. “And like, you… me… we… _whatever_. We were in this really cool room with this other boy.”

“Other boy?” Arin and Sung chorused. Danny began to blush in earnest, Foreigner’s stupid song echoing through his head as he slipped back into the memory. 

“Well, let me rephrase that.” He groaned under his breath, kneading his forehead, knowing they were both watching him. “He had to be your _boyfriend_ , because you were all over him.” Dan admitted quietly.

There were probably softer, kinder ways of phrasing it, but Dan was still reeling and unsure of himself. His first kiss should have been his and his alone, not some weird aliens! He heard Arin give a disbelieving noise, a half choked snort of doubt, as if he thought Dan was full of complete bullshit before their eyes crossed.

“You’re serious.” He whispered before he fell over himself, screeching laughter bounding out of him. And Sung! Poor Sung was just staring at him with flushed cheeks and incredulity and…

_“UH!”_

Oh God. Oh no.

“ _You don’t have to be beautiful._ ”

Fucking _Prince_.

“ _To turn me on!_ ”

Of course.

“TURN IT OFF!” Sung screamed the same moment Arin began to openly sob, his laughter downright terrifying. “COME ON!”  
Lord. His car was a bastard. “I mean! Unless that’s just something your people do on your planet!?” Dan said hurriedly, trying to speak over the song. “He uh, did look super different though, so like… who knows!?”

“Oh my fucking GOD!” Arin wheezed, feet connecting with the roof of the car as he wheeled his legs wildly. “YOU KISSED A GUY!” 

Danny made a disapproving noise. “One, what’s wrong with that? And two, _I_ didn’t kiss a dude, Sung did!”

“YEAH. BUT _YOU_ WERE _SUNG_ , DUMB ASS!”

It was like whiplash going from sentinels and star killers to _this_ . Again, the normalcy of it nearly bowled Danny over, almost causing him to laugh. And then he did, because he deserved it, because if he didn’t he’d go insane and they couldn’t have that. “C-congrats, by the way.” Danny told him between half huffs, going so far as to slap Sung’s knee approvingly over the sound of ‘ _Kiss_ ’. “I mean, not my type. Pretty, in a way. Dragon like.” Maybe if they talked about it Sung would remember something! It could help! Probably… Maybe… 

God, it was really funny. Really funny and really dumb.

“WAIT!” Arin shot up, throwing himself across the armrest excitedly. “YOU KISSED A DRAGON? Y’know what? That’s cool as fuck. I rescind my judgement.” 

“It was Sung, actually.” The poor alien was dead silent now, staring at Danny between the slots his crossed fingers had made, the flush covering his ear tips unmistakable. “He was a very _nice_ dragon boy.” He insisted immediately, feeling sort of bad.

“ _I just want your extra time and your… kiss!_ ” Prince announced in the silence that followed, the ultimate tease.

“GOD!” Sung yelped as he and Arin dissolved into another fit of giggles, hitting the car horn as he lashed out. “JUST TURN IT OFF.” 

“It doesn’t work like that. It’ll probably play something even worse!” It had it’s ways. “Let’s just… get home.” Deal with the fallout there. Danny sat up and put his hands into his pocket before freezing, head cocking slightly. “...Wait, hold up.” He dug further in, brow creasing as nothing brushed back against his finger tips. “...Where’s my money?”

“...Funny story about that.” Sung grinned sheepishly. And without even hearing the story Dan guessed that was fair enough karma for the afternoon.

*

“Okay. So. We got a keytar and an 808 to work with. So that’s better than nothing, at least.”

The sentinel had thankfully not broken out to cause chaos among the town during the earlier incident, something he could tell both Danny and Arin were grateful for. It was splayed open again now, it’s dark insides glaring up at Sung, threatening him.

Was he that dark inside? Is that why he was so messed up? Dark eyed and memory scraped and incomplete? The Dechoir thing had said it was surprised that there was any light left him, so that meant…

God. What did that mean?

Sung stepped closer to the robot and tilted his head at it, trying to remember if it had any significance. Sentinel. Protector. Commanded by him. But why? What was the point? What could any of it even mean?

“...I think you should both leave the room.”

Danny and Arin’s heads popped up simultaneously. “After all that trouble-” Arin started, cut off the minute Danny slapped his arm. “I’m just saying we probably wouldn’t have met those crazy Dechoir things if we had stayed inside!”

“Murphy’s Law, big cat.” Danny said in a firm voice, shaking his head at him.

“I raise you a Yhprum’s Law, Avidan, and also suggest you suck it.”

“I mean it.” The longer he looked at the sentinel the more sure he felt about it. Earlier this thing had been the scariest thing in his life, and now there were star eating shapeshifters and who knew what else there waiting out there for him. Having another ally, someone on his side…

Phobos, Phobos, Phobos.

Was the boy he had kissed in his dreams also Phobos? What was the correlation there? God, he was so tired of questions and so tired of doubting himself. All he wanted was this to be done and over with, but that wouldn’t happen until he put the first foot forward, put his fingers to the keys, and began.

Arin was more than fine leaving the room in response and that didn’t surprise him one bit, but when Danny lingered Sung turned to him fully, mouth turning down. There were dark circles under his eyes that hadn’t been there before, and a sharpness about him that was becoming more pronounced. “I think I’m going to stay.” 

Sung scoffed and shook his head. “No, I need to do this alone.”

“And what, get accidentally killed? Just shut up and let me help.” 

Danny had become him for a moment in time. A moment lost to him, somewhere deep in his mind. Sung pressed his teeth into the meat of his tongue, unable to ignore the taste of blood still laying there along the inside. “You could get killed too.” He told him honestly.

“My parents would get over it.”

Sung could tell he meant it as a joke but there was no hiding how his voice quavered. Those were the same parents Danny had told him taught him his faith, his way of life. Who fed him and clothed him and loved him unconditionally. The idea of taking that from them, from anyone, caused an ache to wind it’s way through the alien. 

“Danny.” He nearly begged.

“Sung.” He countered, his jaw set, eyes alight.

Sung relented, hating it. “...Alright.”

They knelt across from one another with the robot between them, staring down at it. It almost didn’t seem real like this, like it was some kind of accident. “Wake up.” Sung said as he leaned towards it, hoping it would be enough.

Five seconds passed, then ten, then twenty and thirty more. By the time they were a full minute in without any kind of reaction, Danny was starting to get anxious, wiggling about. “I command you to start.” Sung tried against forcefully, hoping he sounded serious enough. 

Nothing. Nothing but silence as the sun began to set outside. Sung raised his hands, purposely ignoring the way they began to shake. It was about intent. Intent and force and meaning. “I needed you, and you came to me, so come back.” He murmured, cradling it’s jagged jaw. “Come back.”

And it wasn’t so much as it waking up.

As him falling into another dreaming space.

*

_“I HAVE A SINGLE QUESTION.”_

_“Yes, Havve?”_

_“WHY THE CAPE?”_

_Sung spun on his heel, unable to help the way he dimpled in response, the fabric waving behind him. “Because, Havve, it makes a statement.” And did he ever love it. It was made of starstuff, a literal map of the cosmos to lead him and the rest of the Brigade through the growing dark._

_“IF THE STATEMENT IS ‘PLEASE COME GRAB THIS EASILY ACCESSIBLE GARMENT AND CHOKE ME OUT’ THEN YES, YOU’RE CORRECT. THAT REALLY IS A STATEMENT.” The robot huffed. “PLEASE, RECONSIDER.”_

_“No.”_

_“AWFUL LITTLE MAN.”_

_“That’s me alright!”_

_It was one of those single solitary moments where they could enjoy themselves. The scouts hadn’t found anything on the horizon and they were simply cruising through hyperspace. He hadn’t been able to keep the cape a secret anymore, pulling it out from under his bunk and smoothing it out across his workspace. “C’mon Havve. Think about it. Malaise hates stars. If she sees me wearing this, it’s going to drive her up a wall.”_

_“AND THEN SHE KILLS YOU.” Havve grumbled with a judgemental shake of his head, clearly not getting it._

_“Isn’t that what you’re here for?” He was spinning now, watching the way the cosmology shifted and curved its way across the fine fabric. Phobos was going to absolutely lose it. The idea brought him a secondary glee, almost as potent as the first, the concept thrilling him. “If it gets me in trouble, we’ll retire it. Turn it into a flag. I don’t know.” He wasn’t getting rid of it, that was certain. “Just… let me have this, please?”_

_So far from Estrellium there was almost nothing to be found but dead space and blackholes. So this cape, this remnant of a thing, was all he had left to bring him peace. A scrap of fabric to fight for, to bring back the reality it symbolized…_

_He’d do it. For his people, for Phobos, for the stars that still sang somehow to him._

_Havve sighed and stood, towering over him. They had known each other for ages now, ever since Sung had been born. Most sentinels were programmed as suicide bombers, really, flying into the dark depths. But Havve was different. Havve was his. Havve was his counterpart._

_After all, the destined Savior of Starlight was the best chance they had against the endless, awful night._

*

Sung, Lumen, other, more. More and more and more and-

A savior, a figurehead, a _god._

He opened his eyes and found Danny staring at him from across the electronic corpse, slack jawed. He had been there, he had seen that, he had…

“Shut up.” Danny breathed out, a being shaped completely by dubiety. 

“I-” Yes. No. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t be like that thing Dan had described, and yet he had felt the power thrumming through his veins, the distant call. “I’m not.” Sung whisper-choked.

“You are.” Danny was reaching across and gripping his shoulders, squeezing them tight. “You’re a literal god.” 

Deny, deny, deny. He could still taste the blood on his teeth, his tongue. “I can’t.” Now he was shaking-breaking-this close to shattering apart. “God, I can’t Danny, I can’t.” Especially now with the darkness put into him, eating him from the inside out.

Dan gulped, his eyes shining, the distance between them unfathomable. “I think you have to, Sung.” And in that moment, it was final.

He became a god.

*

Arin had gone home thinking nothing of, knowing no better, and now he was at the dinner table with his mom, Avi still gone.

That was glorifying it too. His mind was a million miles away, centered on the boy downstairs. If Dan could even call him a boy anymore. A literal divine concept, a star-god. A warrior too, leading the good fight against the encroaching night…

The leader of the Starlight Brigade.

There were still parts of it that didn’t make sense. Such as the fact that the Dechoir attacked with light, and that Sung had found his way here instead of anywhere else in the massive universe they existed in. And his dreams too. What did Dan have to do with any of this? Why did they share those, and memories, and bits of the past?

“Little _motek_ , what’s wrong?” He hadn’t heard his mother call him that in years. He used to be short. So damn short they were sure he would never grow into himself. Dan kept chasing his carrots around his plate, lip beginning to jut out. “Did you and Arin get into a fight?”

“No, we just stayed up too late.” Danny lied, knowing it would get Debbie to shift her focus somewhat elsewhere. Already he could see the way her own lips were pursing, foot tapping along the floor. “I know, I know, it’s not healthy.”

“Not at all. You need eight hours, Daniel!”

“I mean, how late did you and dad stay up?” He tried to counter teasingly, but it came out much too sharp. Her eyes tightened in response, foot tapping more quickly. “Sorry, I meant… I know you had to leave early, and the Storm went through the whole night.”

“Your father stayed up much later than me, of course.” She was relenting, apparently hearing some kind of apology in his words. “I found him asleep on the couch this morning when I woke up.”

“Oh boy, so that means he’ll come home bitching about his back.” Dan surprised himself as he gave a half laugh, thinking himself incapable of it anymore.

“Of course, you know him.” Not even a comment on his language. She must feel bad. Dan shoved a few more carrots into his mouth, forcing himself to swallow them down for her sake, not wanting to her to feel bad anymore. “Will you do your mother a favor and go to sleep early tonight? Play catch up. You don’t have anything to do for the next few days, nothing to worry about.”

“Of course, _eema_.” He stood up and kissed her cheek, letting his lips linger there. His arms came up then of their own according, circling around her. “I’m sorry if I make you worry.”

“Oh baby.” She tutted gently, smiling at him adoringly. “You’re my son, my everything. Of course I’m going to worry. That’s what loving someone is. Worry and care and pride.” 

“And nagging.” Dan giggled softly, blinking his happy tears back. 

“Oy vey! You and your father! Giving me sass all day long. Go, get to your room. Play your bass. It’s been too long.” She pushed him away gently, pulling his plate towards them. “I’ll clean up. That’s also what I’m good for, right?”

“The best!” Leave it to Deborah to make him feel better somehow. Maybe one day he’d be able to tell her all about this. About godheads and star snuffers and strange aliens. But not now. 

Not until he saw this through to the end.

When he went downstairs he found Sung on the ground, the 808 machine half slotted into Havve. “How’s it going?” He was also wearing another pair of Danny’s pajamas, this time a AC/DC shirt and red plaid boxers. 

“Something up here knows what to do, so pretty well, actually.” Like the video games. That had to be the ship-leader-captain in him. Quick-witted and sharp. At least those parts of the puzzle were coming together, it seemed. “We’re really winging it.”

“Well, I mean, yeah.” The drum kit and an old VCR set was what he and Sung had to work with. “I’ll bring you more food down in a couple minutes. I don’t think my mom would have noticed, but…”

Sung waved him off. “Don’t sweat it.”

Dan had to wonder what would come after this. Were the Dechoir looking for them? Would they come breaking down his door? Getting Havve fixed was suddenly terrifyingly relevant. “Is there anything I can do?” He said, hoping his nerves didn’t seem too obvious. What would his mother do in the face of such a force? God, he didn’t even want to think about it. “I can try digging around the back again…”

“...Some music would be nice.” Sung said after a moment. “I saw you had that weird… flat thing, with the big circle on top of it.”

“My vinyl.” Dan couldn’t help but grin, glad those unaware parts of Sung were still somewhat present. “Now that’s easy-peasy. Give me a second to pick something out.” He had all sorts of choices, most of them passed on from his dad. But he knew how much Sung liked 80s music, so he’d pick find something good from that part of the collection. “Okay, okay. You’re about to get the fucking… Mac Attack.”

“A what?” Sung laughed, not even bothering to look up from Havve.

“Fleetwood Mac. They’re fucking classic.” He was almost tempted to put on _Rumors_ , but he hadn’t really listened to _Tango in the Night_ in ages. “Okay, give me a second, because the whole album is so good but you gotta hear this one first.”

Dropping the needle in the exact spot was always his favorite part. A little game he played with himself whenever he put a record on. It skipped, jumped, made a little ‘brwamp!’ sound as it bounced. Then… 

“ _Can you hear me calling out your name?_ ” 

It wasn’t any ‘The Chain’ but it still got him right in the heart. Dan let his shoulders roll back, body beginning to sway with the beat. “ _Oh-woah… I wanna be with you everywhere._ ” He mouthed along, spinning towards Sung.

Sung was half watching him now, mouth curving up. “I’m trying to focus, bud.”

“ _You better make it soon before you break my heart!_ ” He began to sing, bouncing around Sung. “ _Oh-woahhh, I wanna be with you everywhere._ ” He broke off, pulling him up. “Five seconds. Be a regular dude for five seconds with me.” 

Sung was shaking his head but Danny saw the way he couldn’t hide his smile away. Good. They needed a moment like this. To be human, to be kids, to be a little less than what the world was demanding of them. “I promise I won’t tell your boyfriend.” Dan grinned.

“Shut up!” Sung said, reaching out to shove him. But it was good. So, so good…

Until the record skipped right into ‘ _Big Love_ ’ and someone blew his window right out.


	6. Chapter 6

Sung saw the glass shatter and ducked.

No, not now. Please not now. Havve was still hollowed out and broken and unable to do anything at all. God, he thought without thinking about it, realizing just how strange it was for a god to call upon another god.

Two bodies then, one lithe and sylph like, the other one almost as big as the sentinel. They hit the ground of Dan’s basement and rolled easily, coming up like trained killers with blades raised to go. “Sung.” One blurted before he could blink, voice nearly shattering out of him. 

He was speaking in that impossible, alien tongue. The same one that had sang out of him in the store. Sung’s heart twisted at it, that light buried deep inside of him clawing it’s way up.

Phobos, Phobos, Phobos, oh- forever heart, forever song. 

He didn’t know what any of it meant or where it came from, just that it was etched across him eternally. The larger being moved in response, as if to stop what was happening, and so did Dan, but like moonshine and shoretide, they moved as one. 

And that’s how Sung found himself with his fingers unclasping a helmet he had no right knowing and yanking it off, the muscle memory of his past self knowing each latch and pin and strapping mechanism. And there he was, the boy Dan had told him about.

His literal soulmate.

“You-” Phobos whispered, hands coming up, eyes widening in shock. And Sung knew why without him even speaking words what it was in relation to.

“Me.” Sung said with a breathless laugh, and not ‘you’, because he didn’t know who this boy was even if his heart insisted he did. But you, you, you, echoed through him helplessly, desperate for a response.

“Wow, it’s like you never left.” The other one was undoing his own helmet as well, revealing a lion’s face. The lion man from his skipping memory- 

“Lion-O!” He announced in his human tongue.

“What?”

The other alien hadn’t spoken. No. That had been Dan, forced to stand there and bear witness to this strange reunion that Sung didn’t have an explanation for, helpless to what was happening here. “Oh my God, he’s… that’s…” He stuttered, raising his hands, fingers clenching and unclenching worriedly.

Phobos was touching his face, trying to draw his attention back to him. “Your eyes.” He lamented in a broken voice when they met. “We thought… we thought we got you away in time.”

“No, I don’t… I don’t think you did.” Did they know? Know that he barely had a grasp on who he was, what he was meant to do? The lion man was staring at Havve, very obviously confused as to what had happened to him during the process, hopefully putting it together instead of pulling it apart. “I… I don’t know where to start.” 

Phobos gave a broken laugh and shook his head. “You don’t have to. We’re here now. We found you. We can go back.” Back where? To Estrellium? To home? God, he was so tired of endless questions… so tired of not  _ knowing _ anything.

Phobos was trying to tug him away, telling his companion to grab Havve and go, but Sung was digging his heels in, shaking his head no. “We can’t.” He started to say loudly, hoping Phobos would get the hint and let go. They ought to be in sync, they usually were, but he wasn’t who he was supposed to be and-

And Phobos was downright frantic.

“What do you mean, can’t?!” He blustered. “We need you. I need you. The Starlight Brigade.” He was spiraling, Sung realized. Somehow elated and panicked at the same time. “Meouch, tell him!” So that was his name. The lion man tipped his head to the side instead and sniffed, eyes going wide.

“Dechoir.” He growled, hackles raising with it, claws like knives shooting out into the night. Phobos blinked, then looked back at Sung, beginning to shake his head, desperate for some kind of denial.

“...He’s right.” Sung swallowed, looking back at Dan. “That’s why.”

*

Once again, what he’d give to have Arin here.

Three aliens. He had three aliens in his house now. A dragon, a lion, and a literal god man. 

What was his life?

Lion-O had taken one look at him and shook his head before going immediately to Havve, digging his claws into him. He had snarled something at Phobos without warning, clearly not pleased with the situation. Not our fault! Dan wanted to tell them. Dan had found Sung in a fucking ditch and that was all!

Phobos though. That was a whole different story. He was immediately attached at Sung’s hip, nearly clinging to him. And Sung didn’t quite seem to know what to do to himself, but at least he wasn’t uncomfortable. They were speaking to each other now, the meaning of their words lost to Dan.

“Tell him about your memory.” Dan told him, knowing Phobos wouldn’t understand.

“I’m getting there.” Sung shot back.

“You’re not making it any easier on him.”

“Fuck off, Dan.”

Sweet Phobos. He looked almost the same as he had in Dan’s dream, expression blissfully unaware, his hair chopped shoulder short. He trilled at Sung and Sung turned to him, softly shaking his head. 

Maybe he ought to leave them alone. But then what? He couldn’t do anything except just watch the lion man. He gave Sung one last scathing look, silently telling him to explain himself, but the alien purposely ignored him, angling towards Phobos instead. “It’s gonna bite you in the ass.” Dan sing-songed before making his way over to Havve.

“Howdy.” He told the alien despite him having no way of understanding him. “Hope this is cool with you.” If not maybe he’d focus on covering his window. God. How was he gonna explain that one? “I’m uh, just gonna sit here…”

He grunted and shook his head, but didn’t bare those awful teeth of his, so Dan took it as a sign to sit back and enjoy himself. He had out a belt of strange gadgets, each more alien looking than the last. “So, this isn’t awkward at all.” He announced, knowing Sung could both hear and understand him.

“Wait, let me…” He slipped in and out of his ringing language, as if he had never forgotten it. “I’m asking if they have a translator.” He told Dan after a moment, forcing him to wait until Phobos nodded his head.

“Is this better?” He posed quietly, his voice still holding a musical quality as he spoke at Dan. “It’s not necessarily programmed for your planet, so it may get weird.”

“No, it’s perfect!” Dan clapped his hands. “You can uh, keep talking with each other, I was just hoping to speak to lion man.”

“Meouch. Don’t be an asshole.” Phobos quipped. He looked up and bared his teeth for real before touching something on his wrist and glaring at Dan. “Now play nice.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Meouch huffed.

“Oh, wow. Attitude.” Dan hummed, knowing full well Meouch could now understand him. “I guess there has to be someone in the group with it.” 

Meouch’s nostrils flared but he decided to keep to himself. Which was fine, Dan supposed, as long as he could talk  _ at _ him. “So, you’re clearly not the same as Sung.” Phobos, at least, was vaguely humanoid. 

“...I’m a Felidae.” Meouch said to Havve’s innards, grimacing at the drum kit.

“We use that word too!” They had talked about that in human anatomy, when they had dissected cats! What a coincidence! “From the cat kingdom, right?”

Meouch’s head whipped up, eyes sparking cobalt, surprising Dan. “Do _NOT_ call me a cat, boy.”

God, Arin would have a field day with this one. He was a real sour puss. Dan butterflied his legs out and glanced back over at Phobos and Sung, not missing the way they curved into each other, or the way they touched hands. “I mean, I’m not wrong though.” Dan said mostly to himself.

“Human.” Meouch growled. “I am trying to fix a very important line of defense, and you’re distracting me.”

“Yeah well, I’m not going to get anything out of those two.” Danny stage whispered. “How long have they been together, anyways?”

Meouch threw his screw driver device down and looked up at Dan, eyes furious. “They met when Sung was thirteen and Phobos was twelve, in a very far away galaxy. Been betrothed since a year ago. How did Sung not tell you that?” But Danny didn’t hear the rest because the word betrothed was bouncing around his head, gaining meaning with each internalized repeat.

“Oh my God.” Dan whispered in horror. He didn’t even know. “Sung.”

“What?” Sung hissed, head snapping in his direction.

“Can we… can we talk, bud?” Meouch was looking at him, doing that sniffing thing again, as if he could scent his lies out. Fuck.

“I’m a little busy right now.”

“It’ll just take a second. It’s super important.” God, God, God. Let him just have this. Let him save this moment before it all hit the fan and Sung was left with the fallout. “I mean it.”

Not just his boyfriend, but his betrothed! Oh  _ Adonai _ , they were in for it now. How was Sung going to handle this curveball? How did you even respond?

“Fine.” Sung got up and meandered over, brow slanting over his dark eyes. “What?”

Danny gritted his teeth, eyeing the staircase entreatingly. “Not here.” Not in front of them! He heard Meouch’s sleek armor shifting, his entire body coming up to stand. “Just trust me…”

“What did they do?”

...Fuck…

Phobos was blinking now, his expression shifting into something piqued and worried. Fuck, fuck. “Uh, who? What did who do?” Danny laughed panickedly. “Because I think Sung messed his mouth up on Panda Express, but you can’t get angry at them!”

“Don’t play games. The Dechoir. What’s wrong with him?” Meouch was stalking over, very much a predator. “What’s wrong, Sung?”

The golden haired boy blinked, then slipped back a step. “Just.” He began, adam’s apple bobbing as the admission worked it’s way up his throat. “My memory’s a little spotty, is all.”

“...What do you mean?” Phobos was making his way over now too, the cat slits of his eyes narrowing further as he approached. “What did you forget?”

Everything, everything…

“...My whole life.” Sung whispered pathetically.

And that’s when Phobos broke apart.

*

One moment Phobos had been telling him about the ongoing fight, what had happened since they had let him fall. 

The next, and suddenly the world was shattering apart.

Meouch began to swear, charging towards him, demanding to know what had happened, how. And Phobos… God, his heart ached with it, because Phobos was desolate, just standing there.

“You don’t remember anything?” His own voice was a barely there whisper, and yet it filled the room with sound.

“It’s been coming back. Dan… he’s been having dreams. Shared dreams-” 

Suddenly, Phobos bolted, throwing himself straight out the window.

“Phobos!” Sung couldn’t control his voice even though he ought to, nearly yelling as he fled from them. The rest of him followed suit, charging after him thoughtlessly, not even thinking to wait for Meouch and Dan. There were monsters out there, Sung thought frantically as he slipped into the cool March night. Monsters waiting for them.

His bare feet caught on rock and pebbles and undergrowth but he kept running after the white streak of Phobos’s hair, telling himself he could catch him if he just hurried up. Closer and closer and closer yet, until he was inches, centimeters, a mere fingertip from him.

Sung reached out just in time for Phobos to trip and fall, going down immediately with him. Their bodies crashing and rolling over one another until they both came to a stop.

“No.” Phobos gasped out, his breath shuddering out of him. “No, no.”

“Phobos!” All he had was a name. A name and the memory of love upon his heart. “Christ, Phobos, stop.” He was writhing, bucking, trying to arch himself away, but Sung held on. Held on until he began to settle, to stop. “You’re okay, we’re okay.”

“No we’re not!” Phobos panted. “You’re not… you don’t even know me. Us. You don’t know us. I love you, and you don’t love me, not the way you’re supposed to.” He was sobbing then, inconsolable. “You don’t even remember how we met, do you?”

No, no he didn’t. He tried to reach in but there was only darkness to be found. “It’s not my fault.” Sung insisted, his own voice becoming thick with oncoming tears. “They did this to me. They fucked me up.”

And they had. They had taken every part of him that made him him and  _ decimated _ it. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Even though he had nothing to be sorry for. Even though he couldn’t fix it. “I’m so sorry I don’t remember you, but I do Phobos, I do.”

Oh forever heartsong, oh love.

Oh agony, oh God.

“Something inside me still knows you.” He was touching his face, fingers slipping over his wet tears. “Something in me saw you and said ‘that’s him.’” It had been so loud, so overpowering, and he had felt everything in that moment. Everything and more. “That’s your soulmate.” Sung whispered, knowing it to be the ultimate truth.

Phobos’s sobs were shortening, cutting themselves off, becoming nothing in the face of this unfolding truth. He was staring now at Sung with wet eyes, his lips trembling in the pale moonlight. “So if I’m supposed to love you, show me.” He gasped. “Show me how to love you, Phobos.” He begged openly.

And that’s when the scaled boy reached up and held his face and kissed him into oblivion.

_ * _

_ He had found Phobos four years ago. _

_ Sung was sixteen now, and Phobos fifteen, and they were the beloved menaces of the Estrellium court. If you saw one, you saw the other, Meouch and-or Havve usually trailing after them. _

_ They were in the royal garden, one of Phobos’s favorite places, sitting under the godling trees. Finally alone together, just the way they liked. “So, you enlist soon.” Phobos said, his hair spread out across the feathered grass, red petals falling over them.  _

_ “Oh please, keep reminding me.” Sung drawled, brushing a few out. Each touch was so casual, so familiar, theirs for years now and no one else’s, not even their friends. “You’re really doing me so many favors by constantly bringing it up.” _

_ “You’ll do great though.” _

_ “I kind of have to.” That was what being a god meant, after all. So many people looked to Sung with hope, with longing, with desperation for the return of stars. He couldn’t not be great for them. “But I mean, it could be worse.” _

_ “How so?” _

_ Sung made a face at him, sticking his tongue out. “I could be cleaning out the barracks.” _

_ Phobos laughed, a clear and ringing sound, causing Sung to grin. It was always so easy with him, a given really, the two of them perfectly in tandem. “You know, I’ve been meaning to tell you…” Phobos rolled over once, twice, tucking himself into Sung perfectly. “I think I want to join.” _

_ “Yeah, right.” _

_ Phobos was a child of night, one of the few survivors from a Dechoir attack that had taken place four years ago. That’s how Sung had found him, when Sung had found him, floating among the wreckage of his home planet. _

_ His soul had sang out from across distance and space time, demanding Sung to come to him. Save him, bring him to both his sanctuary and his new home. _

_ Soul fated, the court would whisper. Meant to be. Sung wasn’t stupid. He had heard them, but Phobos was just a friend, a good companion… _

_ His other half and whole, so much himself and yet somehow Sung’s. _

_ “That’s not happening.” Sung told him, tugging a lock. “I won’t allow it.” _

_ “You may be a god, but you’re not my god, Sung.” Phobos smirked. “If I want to fight at your side, I will. There’s nothing stopping me.” _

_ He hated it. Hated the image that flashed through his mind of Phobos being caught in light, disintegrating in the midst of a Dechoir fight. No, no Phobos would not take to the skies with him, would not join him in this inexhaustible battle against an endless night. _

_ “We’ll see about that.” Sung told him, closing his luminous eyes. There was still time. A year. He had a year to warn Phobos off of it, to keep him from this life. _

_ He just had no idea that in a years time, he could come to love him, and that he couldn’t bear the idea of him not being at his side. _

*

Kissing, Phobos was kissing him and it was all coming back to him with each passing of lips against his own. The ship’s alarm system screaming, the cold vacuum of space, his cape snapping off as Phobos screamed his name, the void swallowing it up and making it nothing until it was gone.

Malaise. Malaise walking the world upside down towards him, red lips beaming at him.

“Dlihc rats.” She hummed in her backwards voice. “Uoy dessim I woh.”

Cold hands, dark hands, black black black. Meouch roaring, Havve screaming, and Phobos… Phobos begging to give him back. Watched. She had made them  _ watch _ as she strung him up and pulled his light out.

Langour, laughing. That was the shapeshifter. Her second hand. Agents of Boredom, a force to be reckoned with.

They had saved him, somehow. That part still didn’t make sense. But that’s when they had yanked almost everything out of Havve to hide him inside, to send him off. “I love you.” Phobos was telling his sleeping form. “I love you, I love you, come back to me.”

And that’s when he pressed the flower into his hand and everything suddenly made sense.

Sung clutched Phobos desperately, bringing him closer, his heart demanding it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Now he knew what to be sorry for. For leaving him. For forgetting him. For letting himself get caught. He had been foolhardy and proud and that’s what had gotten him in the end.

His damn hubris.

Phobos was mouthing his name between kisses, his hands touching his arms, his heart. “It’s okay.” He reassured him gently. “It’s okay, I love you, it’s okay.”

Years. He had been Phobos’s for years and he had been his and they had been glorious. There was no one like them, and together with Meouch and Havve they had formed the Starlight Brigade. They were the ones that were called upon when the Dechoir showed. They were the ones who banished the endless night. Theirs was a light that was welcome, not the damning kind.

Sung broke away suddenly, realizing how his breath had all but left him. He was spilling stars, he realized, his entire body becoming the fountain Danny had described earlier, absolutely boundless. “I… I remember.” He told Phobos.

He remembered  _ everything _ .

*

They had lost them. Despite having scents and gold and moonlight to follow through the trees, they had lost them completely.

Dan was out of breath, leaning against a tree as Meouch began to pace. “What… What’s going on.” Why couldn’t they find them? Why was this so damn hard?

“There’s something… here…” He had that strange silver blade at the ready, his tail grazing the wind. “...Dechoir.” He hissed, the wind taking it.

A laugh rang out and Dan fell back with it, covering his head. It sounded as if it were all around them, the trees outright shuddering at the sound. “Hello, little Felidae, it seems you’ve brought some food.”

“Is that you, Langour? It’s been far too long.” Something cocky was coming out in Meouch now, the exact opposite to how he had been with Dan. “How’s the scar treating you?”

“Don’t sound so proud of something that couldn’t even kill me, bastard. I’m still standing here.” She appeared out from the dark, her head half broken in. Arin. God, Arin had done that. “Malaise will be so happy! The god child and this one.”

“What, a human?” Meouch flipped his blade. “He’s nothing.”

“He’s everything.” Langour told him before exploding into blinding light.


	7. Chapter 7

Something flashed in the distance and he and Phobos both jumped at the sight.

They looked at each other knew immediately, the memory now fresh for Sung but still painfully obvious. “Dechoir.” Star eaters, light eaters, manipulators of bright. That’s how they tricked planets, by using their own stars and space against them, leaving only darkness and night in it’s place.

It had to be Langour, that bitch. Pulled by the lights essence leaving him. “We have to go.” Sung told him, as if it wasn’t obvious, the overlap of his before-self still lingering.

“Lead the way, captain.” Phobos grinned at him, too keen for a fight. This time away from each other had sharpened him, made him battle eager. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t Sung’s favorite either.

But there’d be time to fix that.

As much as Sung wanted to slip his hand into Phobos’s he knew better than to do that now. They ran side by side, the ground flying under them, the world blurring out. “You know, I’m not opposed to this look.” Phobos called over to him.

“You just like it because you can see my legs.”

“Arms too. That’s an added perk.” Awful, terrible, so damn good. He realized then just how much he had missed Phobos, how much he really needed him. “What happens if I land the killing blow?”

“I’ll be impressed because neither of us is armed, and also I’ll take you to the nearest untouched star system and let you go absolutely nuts.”

“Any planet?”

“ _Any_ planet.”

“You really do love me.” And while Phobos was still grinning there was a softness nudging it’s way into it, his gratefulness for Sung’s returned memories very obvious. 

Sung touched his shoulder, the breath barely panting out of him, his body eager for it. “I always will.”

They found the clearing immediately and both stopped upon seeing Meouch. “Bitch, bitch.” He wasn’t used to Phobos swearing either, but he decided not to comment on it. “She left him as a message.” Hopefully she hadn’t let him go dark. That was another thing too that they did. The Dechoir could reach into you, pull your personal light out. It was like a part of your soul, the thing that made you _you_ , only to swallow it whole. That’s where most both Malaise and Langour’s powers had come from, Sung remembered then, made up of countless souls.

Sung went to turn the commander over, fingers seeking out his pulse. “Boy, when this is all over, he’s really getting it.” Sung joked darkly. “Getting his ass handed to him like that-”

“...They really had an affect on you, didn’t they?”

He looked up at Phobos and blinked, small stars spilling out. Danny and Arin, he realized moments later, he meant his human friend’s influence. “They’re the only reason I survived.” He informed the other in a careful voice. “If they hadn’t found me and Havve-” Meouch groaned and he immediately shut himself up. “Hey there, starshine.”

“That’s my line, asshole.” The Felidae groaned. Poor, grumpy old man. He had been about to retire when all of this had gone down. “Where’d that bitch go?”

“Langour? Not here anymore.” Phobos said, patrolling the perimeter leisurely. “Got Sung his memories back, by the way.”

Meouch blinked, pupils slitting with the action. “What, how?”

Phobos smirked, too pleased for his own good about the whole situation, causing Sung to huff. 

Meouch made a face and sat up, rubbing his head, making it obvious he neither needed to know nor wanted to. “So what, she just showed up to show up? Going to go report to her captain?” Meouch’s expression was becoming hollow at Sung's words, regret making itself known. “...Meouch, what happened?”

“...She took him.”

“Took who?” Phobos asked, but Sung already knew, horror unfolding immediately as the realization made itself known.

Dan.

Dan was now in Malaise’s court.

*

_...Ringing, singing, stars abound..._

Dan groaned and tipped his head to the side, only for it to stay where it was, facing straight ahead. 

“ _Ekawa er’uoy._ ” Who the fuck was speaking gibberish at him? What was going on? “ _Dlareh Rats Desselb_.”

Wait, he knew these words, these whispers. They were the same ones from his dreams! His eyes snapped open and he found himself in a darkened room upon a slab of glass. At first, there was nothing to make sense of, but then the woman walked in.

She was on the ceiling, somehow. Her hair floating around her, her mouth viper red. “ _Nadiva Leinad._ ” She mused succinctly. “ _Uoy dnif d’I thguoht reven I._ ” She was crazy. She had to be. A crazy god damn alien. “ _Nac ynam ton. Em gnidnatsrednu, ti t’nsi, drah s’ti?_ ” 

“Can you speak English?” Dan spat.

“Yes, I can.” 

_Oh._

She still was staring at him from above, her hands finding her flat hips and sliding up-down. “I walk worlds and speak in reverse. Not many find pleasure in it.” She told him casually. “It usually throws most for a loop.”

“I’d say.” Was he really holding a regular ass conversation with this woman? What the hell. “Since you’re so talkative, you mind telling me what I’m doing here.”

She tipped her head to the side and gathered up her hair. “Well, many reasons, I suppose.” The upside down woman began to pace then, eyes tracing his form. “The god child will come from you, that’s a given, and bring his friends as well. And then, of course, there’s the matter what you are made of.” She purred. "What you are."

She knew. She knew, she knew, she knew. He arched upwards, hoping he didn’t look too desperate. “Isn’t is lovely, a secret? Powerful too.” Her tongue traced her lips slowly. “Not always something to share either, Daniel Avidan.”

“Please.” Give me this, give me one thing. He could feel the plea moments from springing to his lips, but he bit them back until he tasted blood. It wouldn’t matter soon anyways, it was clear she would kill him.

Unless.

Unless, unless, unless.

He was something she needed. Something that would further her plans as an agent of boredom.

“Use your brain, dumb little man.” She reached down to ruffle his hair, a gesture too sweet and too fair. “And perhaps, by the time I come back, you’ll know what you are.” She took a step back, and then another, walking backwards into some unknown hell. “ _Kcul doog_.” She whispered.

And then, like it was nothing, she was gone.

*

He knew it was a gamble, but it was all he could think of.

It had taken time and effort to track down Arin Hanson, but he and Phobos had done it, and all without alerting Dan's parents. Now they were at the younger boy's house, Dan’s car behind them, uncharacterstically quiet.

“What if he doesn’t answer?” Driving over here had been a disaster. It wasn’t anything like a starship. “Then what?”

“God, like I know.” Again, that little human part of Sung kept trying to sneak out and make itself known. He liked it though. It was a reminder of a part of him that had helped bring back the real Sung. “Get fucked?”

“...Sung.” Phobos murmured, scandalized.

He blushed, stars popping off. “Not like _that!_ ” 

Phobos gave him a judging look but stayed quiet on the matter, staring up at the window sill. “I’m glad you made friends while you were here." He told him after a minute. "They seem… nice.”

“Well, you haven’t met this one yet. He’s a little shit.” And there Arin was finally, peeking out his windowsill. It was impossible to miss the way his mouth rounded, eyes following suit. “Open the window!” Sung mouthed at him.

“Why are you glowing?!” Arin whispered fiercely as he pushed it up, as if to say 'why can you just be normal already?!'.

“Because I’m a god, asshole!” Sung shouted back.

That got his attention immediately. “A _what?!_ ” A light turned on downstairs and they all instinctively ducked. “Jesus shit, wait, hold up.” He said before disappearing momentarily.

“I feel like this is a bigger deal for you now than it was back home.” Phobos mused, ringed ears flicking amusedly. Sung blew out an unimpressed breath, trying to wave him off, but he was right, in a way. He was equivalent to Dan’s _Adonai_. “Is someone getting full of himself?” He hummed.

Sung stepped towards him, lips quirking before he could help himself. “If you keep it up, Phobos, you’re gonna be full of-”

“Hi!”

“ARGH!”

There was a child present, which meant that he should promptly shut the fuck up. Still, Phobos was sniggering, not even trying to be subtle about it. Asshole. “Arin.” He began pleasantly, hoping to start off on the right foot.

“Where’s Dan?” Arin huffed, cutting to the chase. Of course.

“Well, that’s the funny story, he uh…” Oh God, oh God. There was murder in his eyes, equivalent to Havve’s. “Remember our friend, back at the store?” He began.

“...You let him get kidnapped, didn’t you.” He said in a deadly soft voice.

Sung felt himself begin to sweat, what stars that were coming off of him dimming in the moonlight. “If it makes you feel better, it was mostly on Meouch!” Phobos interjected, saving the day for him. “We were… otherwise preoccupied.” He then murmured, for whatever reason, feeling the need to mention it.

Never mind.

Arin was balling his fist up, puffing his chest out, getting real upset like he had when they had nearly knocked each other out. But he was controlled now, in a sense, more focused. “What did I tell you Sung, when we talked to each other in the car before we let you in?” Arin asked him in a neat and quiet voice, leading him in.

“That Dan’s your best friend…” Sung started only for Arin to start talking over him.

“I said I would get you home. Because I had a Spring Break to enjoy. And I’m sure as hell not going to enjoy it if Dan isn’t here by my side. So just… tell me what I need to do, and I’ll make it happen.” If you didn’t look in his eyes you couldn't even tell. Tell that he was downright terrified. Sung shifted from one foot to the next before looking back at the car.

“We’re gonna have to ask you to drive.” Not only back to Dan’s house, but to where Phobos and Meouch left their starship where he had first crash landed only two nights ago. Arin’s brow slanted heavily but he threw his hands up with a ‘what can you do about it?’ kind of huff, rolling his eyes. “You fucking owe me, star man.” He said, jabbing a finger at Sung.

Phobos chuckled and the sound broke the tension immediately, especially when he smiled at Arin. “Both of us, actually. Wanna team up?”

“...Do I ever!” Arin got a good look at him then, excitement showing through. “Wait! Are you _the_ dragon man?”

“Arin.” Sung stepped in, smiling warmly, arm coming around the other alien to pull him in tightly, so happy to have that feeling again. “Meet my betrothed. Phobos.”

He winked and leaned towards Arin conspiratorially. “ _Lord_ Phobos of the Lumen Court of Estrellium.” He told him. "Don't forget it."

“You’re going to be married? What!? Wait. Oh my God. Danny kissed a married man!” Arin began to blab. Phobos blinked gave an inquisitive sound and Sung tilted towards him, whispering into his ear. 

“That’s what I was telling you about before, when I wasn’t quite whole.” Phobos had done that. Had poured love and light back into him when he had been about ready to lose himself. “Dan’s been having dreams of the Dechoir for years…”

Phobos gasped, turning to Sung. “Don’t tell me you forgot.” He whispered faintly, ears tucking down.

“Forgot what?”

“Of Star Heralds.” Phobos insisted, the name not quite clicking until he described it further. “God prophets, storytellers, singers of songs.”

No. They were legends, they were myths, they were _gone_. Lost to the eternal night, the Dechoir making certain of that. But now that he was thinking of it, it was all adding up. The dreams, the slipping, the kinship they shared.

Star heralds, the mouthpieces to the gods.

“That’s why.” Sung said outloud. “That’s why Langour took him. That’s why she left Meouch.” A message. He really had been a god damn message for them as well as a trap. But what other choice did they have, he realized with a weak laugh. They couldn’t let her have Dan. 

“So.” Arin said loudly, the single word managing to shake. “Are we going to save my best friend or what? Because if you won’t, then I will.” And he’d try. Poor Arin would tear down the sky if it meant getting Dan back someway, somehow.

Sung grinned grimly, determined. “We’re gonna save Dan. Like motherfucking Megaman.”

*

Ring and singing and calling and

_Fall._

He wanted to fall again. Fall into Sung’s memories, where everything was warm and happy and sound. He’d give anything to not be here anymore, slowly losing himself to the darkness, in lack of sight and lack of sound. He had been singing to distract himself. Trying not to go down that endless rabbit hole...

 _“Now the king told the boogie men._ ” He rasped. “ _You have to let that raga drop..._ ”

“God, quit it with the ruckus already.” It was the girl’s voice coming out of the security guard. He remembered distantly that Sung had told him that, but it was something else seeing it. So much that he almost laughed. “Aren’t you tired?”

Immensely, but Dan wasn’t going to admit that.

Langour was even worse looking like this, the puckered skin of the scar standing out. “If you’re a shapeshifter, why don’t you just get rid of that?” Dan asked, inclining his head towards the mess.

“Because, idiot, I have to heal. It takes time.” Hadn’t Meouch said something about another scar earlier? Apparently she wasn’t as good as she tried to come off to be. “We’ve been chasing too many stars, not consuming enough, so it’s not like it usually is.” Oh, she liked to talk. How lovely. He'd save that for later, hopefully. “But with you here now and Sung fully lit up again, we’ll have a god feast.”

Is that what he was? A god? No, there was no way. He didn’t breathe stars like Sung did. He just had weird dreams. Langour was leaning over him now, shifting back into her original form. “I don’t think Malaise would mind if I got a taste.” She was crawling over him, pink lips pulling up and up and up.

“No.” Dan rasped, trying to get away, trying to hide.

But she was on him within seconds, an absolute parasite.

*

The car ride to Dan’s house was dead silent, something that had surprised him.

The minute they peeked into the broken window and he had seen Havve Sung’s entire body lit up. “CALM DOWN.” Havve told him. “SEE? I’M FINE.”

“I hated you!” Sung told him as he reached his arms out, gripping one of the few smooth parts of his sentinel friend. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“YOU ACT AS IF THAT’S NOT ALWAYS THE CASE.” Havve grumbled, but deep in that robotic tone Sung could hear him laughing. “I HAVE TO ASK THOUGH. WHAT DID YOU PUT IN ME?”

Meouch peeked over his shoulder and managed a half grin. “It’s called an 808. They can hold perfect rhythm, apparently. And have several unique presets.” 

“OH GOODY, NOW I CAN MURDER TO A FUNKY, FRESH BEAT.” Havve intoned dryly, optics rolling with the fact. “NOW WHO IS THE TINY CHILD-MAN HERE?”

Cue Arin, peeking down at them, sniffing inquistively. “Wow, your friends are assholes.” He said, apparently not getting it. “Anyways, come on, I’m driving you to your fucking UFO and you’re saving my best friend and then we’re getting some pizza, okay?”

“...Pizza?” Meouch and Phobos asked in unison, causing Sung to smile brightly. There they were, the Starlight Brigade, together at last as they ought to be. He couldn’t believe it. The very thing that had been calling to him through memory and song was finally here.

Finally _his_ , as it ought to be.

So they piled into Danny’s ugly car and Sung grabbed his keytar and the minute the car started a savage combination of synth and bass and guitar and drums began to pour out. “ _Here we stand! World’s apart! Heart’s broken in two, two, two!_ ” A man shouted out.

“...Holy shit. Talk about epic battle music.” Arin spared one glance back at the house and Sung followed suit. “We’re gonna bring Dan back, or Avi will kill us, I hope you know. That man went to war.”

Meouch huffed a laugh, cut off when Phobos nudged him. “So have we kid. Our entire lives have been war. You’re just getting a taste of it.” He didn’t have to put it like that, even if he was right. Their eyes met in the mirror and it was strange to see himself with bright and endless eyes instead of black. Now those… those were his eyes.

“Hit it.” He told Arin, ready to be done with it. Ready to end the Dechoir and Langour and Malaise.

This was it.

This would be the end.

He would make sure of it.

*

Malaise was back.

His mouth was dry, his head spinning. He should haven eaten more, he realized with a breathless laugh. Should have listened to his mother instead of being so full of himself.

“You speak in strange tongues too.” She told him and he blinked up at her languidly. “You keep saying a name. _Adonai_.”

Had he been praying? It wouldn’t surprise him. It was all he had now. There was something about this room, this space, the glass beneath him and the endless dark Malaise steeped them in.

Something driving him insane.

“Have you realized what you are yet? Or are you still struggling, little boy?”

“You can thank your henchman for that.” Langour had pulled back and he had felt meaningless, parts of him drifting off into the dark. “She’s a real feisty one, she is.” 

“Oh, she took part of your light? How awful.” Malaise mused, not sounding sympathetic in the slightest. “There’s still plenty inside of you though. Nothing like the god-prince, but still a lot.”

And why? He just wanted to know at this point. Know why he was the way he was. Why for five years his life had been a strange living hell with no stop to any of it. There was one last lock to click open, one last puzzle piece to fall.

She smiled at him like she knew. “The stars aren’t just stars. Aren’t just gas and elements and waves of radiation. They are the oldest living things in this universe. They are the true gods.” She leaned up into herself and brushed her dark dress out. “Bestowing numerous beings across their domains with strange gifts, and you and your little star-man are two of many, but also two sides of the same coin.”

“Just say it.” Dan gritted out, making her laugh and laugh and laugh, the cackling never ending as it bounced around them.

“Sung is the hero, and his story is yours to tell.” She flipped towards him then, finally straightening out. She looked stranger like this, like she didn’t belong somehow. “Star herald, proclaimer of gods. They sought you out and blessed your brow with light and love.” Malaise touched his forehead then and ice speared through him, emptying him out. “Perfect for the taking. Perfect to make _mine_.”

*

They were running out of time.

Something in Sung knew. He had three parts to him now. Havve, his counter weight. Phobos, his soul mate. And Danny, his second side.

Meouch’s fingers were flying across his command board as the rest of the strapped in. He could see Arin idling out in the field, staring straight up. Bring him home, the younger boy had told him, punching his chest with his thumb pressed out. He had learned, and would keep learning if Sung had anything to say about it.

“ARE WE GOOD FOR TAKE OFF?” Havve asked, putting himself into his fighter seat. He and Phobos had their own that could split off from the rest of the ship, always necessary when the battle began.

They ought to be. They had everything and everyone. But something still felt off. He shifted his hair back off his forehead, forehead creasing with the silent effort of figuring it out. “SUNG.” Havve barked.

“...Yes.” He said, hating how uncertain he sounded. Phobos blinked and held his finger up, signaling he’d be right back despite them not having anymore time to waste. “Phobos, what are you-”

The cape.

He had the god damn cape with him.

Havve let out a garbled noise of frustration, drum kit inside of him kicking up in fury, but Phobos ignored him, attaching it to his armor’s pauldrons. “I always thought this made you look so handsome.” Phobos told him oh-so-softly.

“Even more so than the boxer-briefs?” Sung grinned, unable to help himself, stars swirling around them.

“Before we go, you’re going to have to get a pair of those, because I _very_ much enjoyed them.” How stupid, how perfect, how tooth achingly sweet. Meouch was groaning now too but it wasn’t his fault that he loved Phobos so much.

Wasn’t his fault that they were going to get married immediately after this was done.

The betrothal had been so last second, spoken moments before their last battle had begun. He didn’t even have anything to offer it with, just words and desperation as the rest of their crew streamed around them.

“Say you’ll marry me.” Sung had told him over the blaring alarm. “Say yes.”

“You idiot.” Phobos had sobbed happily. “Making me go into battle like this.”

“We’ll have something to come back to then.” Sung grinned, just a bit too feral, unable to help it. 

“You.” Phobos kissed him then perfectly, the world melting away for just a single moment in time. “I always come back to you, Sung.”

So now he had several reasons to end this, all on top of the reasons he had before. A hundred million reasons to end it now, before it spread even further and ruined even more. There would be light on the horizon, so help him God. 

He would make sure of it.

*

He had fallen into Sung again, and was eternally grateful for it.

It was the last battle that had happened before the fall. Before Phobos and Meouch had shot him off inside of Havve in the middle of the geomagnetic storm. It had been pure chaos, a wave crashing down on them from seemingly nowhere, Dechoir ships filling the seemingly endless stretch of space before them.

Sung was a literal shooting star, his ship slamming through the ranks. The way he handled Rock all came together in that moment, as well as his deftness at playing the keytar. It was all in his hands, his eyes, his mind as it reached out to what stars were left and begged their assistance.

God’s gods. They were his only hope.

But then Malaise herself, the scourge of stars, had stepped out into the crowd. They hadn’t lied when they called her world walker, the boundless leagues of space hers to claim as her own. She spoke to Sung in that winding tongue of hers then, calling him towards her to end it all.

And like Adam and Eve to Samael, he had all too eagerly answered that call.

Danny could only watch through Sung’s eyes in silent horror as she rendered his entire ship apart with a flick of her wrist, her power at it’s highest it had ever been. She had been lying it wait for this, knowing after years of battle that she would finally see the star god on the battlefield, that she would make him her own.

And she had, touching her cold hands upon his brow, just as she had done to Dan moments (minutes, hours, days, years?) before.

Weakness. They had to have some kind of weakness. Danny looked beyond Sung in that moment, trying to figure her out. She was equal parts darkness and light, but that light… that light wasn’t hers.

_There’s a light, and it never goes out…_

_There’s a light, and it never goes out…_

_There’s a light…_

_A light._

_A light._

_A light._

He just had to reach out and take it.

He just had to-

Had to-

_(become more, become other, become…)_

He reached through Sung, through the memory, through space and time itself, and touched her brow.

“ _Woh?_ ” She spoke backwards still, but it was easy enough to understand this time around.

“Murphy’s fucking Law.” Dan told her, and ripped it out.

*

Darkness. Endless darkness. He knew it like the back of his hand now, all too ready to banish it.

They came out on the other end and found the Dechoir fleet waiting for them.

Chaos. It was pure chaos then, the four of them splitting off and jetting into the fight. This too, Sung knew like the back of his hand, except he loved this.

The thrill of battle, of victory, of taking on the night.

He saw Phobos distantly, skirting through, quick as firelight. And Havve, ever the brawler, nothing delicate about his assault. And Meouch. Meouch was a saboteur, cutting in from the sides and sniping them out.

This is what he loved.

He had a song in the back of his head as he blitzed through another line of defense, something that had crossed over the radio. “ _We come from the land of the ice and snow._ ” He sang to himself under his breath. “ _From the midnight spring where the hot springs flow._ ”

“What are you talking about over there?!” Meouch yowled over the comm line, incredulous.

“He’s singing! It’s cute!” Phobos snapped, a laugh bursting out of him. “Let him have fun!”

“IF HAVING FUN LEADS TO US ALL DYING, I’M BLAMING YOU LORD PHOBOS.”

Phobos giggled and Sung’s heart soared with it. “That’s fair.”

They had this. They just had to make one final push and get to the base. And then it’d be the four of them against Langour and Malaise and they’d do it this time.

Except, something else happened in that moment, completely unexpected.

The world became absolute light.

*

Oh God, oh God.

Oh _him?_ Oh God.

He was everything in that moment. Every speck of stardust and endless memory. Every laugh, every tear, every song ever thought of, ever to come.

He hadn’t meant to do it. He hadn’t meant to become this thing. This holy other. This _Gilluy Shekinah_ personified. But he had oh he had oh he had and he couldn’t stop it.

He was Malaise and Sung and Meouch and Phobos and Arin and himself, Dan. He was his mother and his father. He was the music store keeper, the girl at the window, his past and present and future self.

He was alpha, omega, and so much more.

He was Dan.

He was Dan.

He was-

“Dan.”

A parallel. Oh comedy. Oh tragedy. Forever intertwined. He heard his name spoken a trillion times over, the universe singing with it. “Dan, Dan, Dan Avidan.” That was him, but not. Yes but no but maybe but so but-

“DAN!”

Light. Compliments. Dark. Ends. Beginnings.

God, God, God.

He was a new god. He was their god. He was...

“ _DAN AVIDAN!_ ”

Now someone was digging into him, trying to let it out. Please. Please. He couldn’t keep being this. He couldn’t be their god. He was just a boy, eighteen, kissed now by two people he hadn’t meant to kiss, not even in college yet.

_A light, a light, that never goes out._

But it could _come_ out.

It could be taken and tossed up and put back where it belonged in the first place.

In the sky in the stars in the universe.

“God?” He asked and the being smiled back.

“Actually, it’s Sung.”

*

“When I look up at the sky, what meets my eyes?”

He had his bass in his lap, the summer sun slipping through his open window. They had fixed it months ago. That and the hole Arin had accidentally put in his tire when they finally drove home after that night.

He still hadn’t told Arin completely what had happened. Just that he had had quite the experience and was happy to be home. 

Neither of them had seen Sung or Phobos or Meouch or Havve since that fateful night three months ago. He was without dreams now, and without purpose, but it was probably better that way, after all.

“Can I just stand by while the world dies?”

The song was the only thing that had come to him since everything. Since becoming a literal god. It had been itching to be written, and then itching to be sung. So he had begun to pen it out, and now he was at the part where he made the sound.

“A starship idling nearby… is it my time?”

He had to go to work soon. It was nearly time. But he just had to get this first verse out before he put himself out. “I crawl inside and turn the cockpit clockwise…”

“Towards the sunrise.”

No.

Danny turned and there was Sung, a new visor over his eyes, his smile a million miles wide. “How are you-?” Dan began.

“You seem to forget, I’m a literal god.” And then there was Phobos, and Meouch, and Havve, all appearing behind them, the stars ringing his finger and Phobos's indication of their love. “You know, when you start dreaming of a song, you know I dream of it too.” Sung told him as Danny went flying at him, holding him close. “I think we have a story to tell.”

A story of starlight and epic battles. Of lost love and friendship.

Of the god damn Starlight Brigade, and everything they had won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all it was a wild ride but  
> it's done  
> thank you  
> thank you

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Look Around (There's a Patch of Snow on the Ground)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21894337) by [doc_boredom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doc_boredom/pseuds/doc_boredom)




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